[Chibils]

e: Sorry, this is probably the wrong board. I should have put this in general or plants. I was thinking this made since because my whole conundrum was related specifically to the type of fish I have.



Hi all,

I have a 5" Jack Dempsey and a common pleco who about to move up to a bigger tank since I dropped their old one moving to my new house yesterday. I'm taking this as an opportunity to re-scape and re-plant because I did a pitiful job last time.

I'm still very new to this and I know I'm using too much light (4x54w T5HO) for my setup, but all I've managed to keep in the old tank was a huge water sprite (broke apart when moved) and an Amazon sword. Everything else got uprooted by my Dempsey when he went digging around in the sand. I was using some small to medium plants for carpeting and midground cover but if the root ball was small enough to come up when he went digging then I couldn't keep it planted.

The new tank is most likely going to be a 125. I don't want full coverage, since he enjoys doing a little landscaping himself. I have two pieces of driftwood, but will probably add more to the new tank to keep it from feeling so empty. Here's a picture of the 40G I had to pop him in yesterday until I get the new tank. You can see the two pieces of wood I have, but not very well.

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[roadmaster]

Might try several Anubia plant's attached to the wood pieces with fishing line .
Would encourage getting some more of the floating wisteria or water sprite to block too much light for anubia that don't really care for it.
Common pleco can uproot plant's also, so doubtful that much in the way of rooted plant's will survive.The pleco's I have kept showed a fondness for sword plant's.
Crinum plant is background plant I have used that the fish do not seem to like the taste of.
I would get more wood,and maybe some larger smooth river stones from landscaping store and you might be able to wedge some crypt's/more java fern within the crevice's to keep fish from uprooting them.

 

[LRJ]

I would cover the driftwood in some combination of moss, anubias and ferns, and wouldn't even bother planting anything in the substrate. As the driftwoods become in engulfed in foliage the tank should become pretty lush. I'd also get some nice floaters in there like frogbit and allow them to take over a sizable portion of the surface. Nice JD.

 

[Chibils]

It sounds like more driftwood + attaching plants is the way to go. Any suggestions on moss or similar? The piece of driftwood on the left is a really really interesting piece that I don't want to lose under plants. It's hard to see since the water level is so low (tank is drilled on the back and I can't find the cap for the bulkhead).

I will add more wood when I upgrade to the new tank and plant it down with anubias and other stuff that attaches to wood easily.

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