Plants and Plant-eating Fish

Q: I was wondering if you could suggest an assortment of aquarium plants for a 46g bowfront, which will be home to my two blood parrots and six corycats. Lighting 30W. Temperature 79F.

Since I am a total beginner at aquarium plants, I am looking for plants that are easy to take care of, can tolerate relatively low light (since I don't think a 30W bulb gives off much light).

I was also thinking about adding live plants to my 55g goldfish tank. What kind of plants would you recommend?

Being cichlids, blood parrots will uproot/eat most of the plants so your choice is even more limited than just by light

Appropriate plants, which could tolerate such neighbors and be suitable for your tank conditions, would be all anubias species - the most obvious choice for tanks with cichlids; vallisneria and sagittaria species, java fern regular and Lace varieties, bolbitis species, java moss. There have been mixed results when trying to introduce cryptocorynes and swords to cichlid tanks (cryptocoryne species would tolerate low light conditions, some swords would too - sword Tropica Rosette). I am not sure if any bunch plant could survive cichlids; maybe anacharis and hornwort would to some extent but others most probably will be eaten.

All the same plants will do just fine in your goldfish tank - those are hardy plants, which will do well in most conditions. Even though goldfish also like taste of plants, cryptocorynes, swords, anacharis, and hornwort will have better chance with them than with the parrots.

Q: I am putting together a 150 Gal African Chiclid tank and I want to start planning now for what type of plants will grow with the water conditions that I will have in my tanks. I live in North Dakota, the water is great for Africans because the PH is anywhere from 7.4 - 9.0 pH, but they use Chloramines for treatment at the plant. I really don't know what types of plants will grow with this setup that I will be ending up with. I am looking for a little help in choosing what plants will work for me & my tanks.

If your water contains chloramine then you will need to use Stresscoat or other similar water conditioner to neutralize it - chloramine is poisonous for fish.

The best plant choice for an african cichlid setup is anubias - they are very hardy, don't require much light, and have a bad taste. You could go with Anubias nana and Anubias coffefolia for the foreground, A. barteri v. "Round Leaf" for middle ground, and A. congensis, frazeri, and gigantea for the background.

You may try other hardy plants too: java fern - both regular and "Tropica" varieties, bolbitus heteroclita (african fern) and bolbitus heudelotii, crinum natans and crinum calamistratum.

Here is an article with general suggestions on how to keep plants in a cichlid tank:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/plants_101.php

and here is a suggested plant list:

http://www.malawipoint.com/pflanzen-eng.htm

Q: I have a newly established 10 gallon tank. It currently has 2 red-eye tetras. I plan to add a few more as the tank cycles, and eventually some cories and african dwarf frogs. The tank has 1 13 w fluorescent light. Which plants would you suggest for me? I would like some that are relatively low maintenance, and would look good in my tank.

In general, broad-body tetras such as red-eye, white skirt, black neons, etc., are plant nibblers, so beside looking for low-light plants we would also suggest to go with plants, which do not taste good. Such, we usually include green hygrophila in our low-light packages as a very hardy plant but unfortunately this plant is especially loved by red-eyes.

If you are looking for an assortment of 12 or so plants, which would probably be appropriate for a 10 gallon tank, we would suggest to go with 4 green and red cryptocoryne wendtii, couple anubias nana for front-middle ground (depending on dimensions of your tank), one anubias congensis/frazeri/gigantea for background, some java moss, couple java ferns, and if your water pH is acidic-neutral you could also get one or two of Bolbitis heteroclita.

You also still could try some bunch plants like green hygrophila and hornwort with your red-eye tetras: adult plants that we send would probably not taste very good for them but all young offshoots they produce will be almost certainly eaten.