# plants for self-maintaining tank



## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

what plants would be good to add to a tank to provide enough food for what kind of fish that will eat them ?

it sounds like a simple question, ... 

i can find lists of plants people have suggested as fast growing plants
and mexican oak leaf is supposedly among the fastest growing.

but sites also say Hygrophila difformis is "fast", ... i've got it in my current tank and while the individual leaves grow fast, the plant itself i put among the slower growing stem plants i have (rotala being slower - i don't know what type)

the other side, what fish to eat these plants ?

silver dollars are highly accused of eating plants

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so i could have a tank with silver dollars and Mexican oak leaf.

that's one fish eating one kind of plant, ... any additional fish and/or plants to add to this for ideas ?

would be very appreciated
(even non-fish)

Edit:
algae i have ideas to deal with in other ways (amano shrimp)

for plants, ... non-fish herbivore preference critters would actually be nice 
not turtles, or frogs
otherwise open to all omnivores with a preference for plants, (more than duckweed - seems duckweed is an easy one, which is very very soft, other plants prove to be tougher and fish get picky), ... don't want lazy picky critters


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

i am way too picky there 

open to all fast growing plants
open to all critters that have diets that include plants.

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additional note, ... one of those random curiosities
ramshorn snails like basil (had extra, put it in the tank to see if it would survive, ... the snails that generally leave my plants alone gobbled up the basil before i could find out if it would survive in the aquarium


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## SBS (Feb 26, 2013)

Mexican oak leaf is fast growing, but the stems are very delicate. If they are boisterous fish, it won't last long, and if I were a plant eater, I'd manage to eat it faster than it grows  

If you want the plants to survive with silver dollars and the likes, then look into something they'd eat, but not so much that is gone in a day or two. Other than that just feed them romaine lettuce and spinnach instead.


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## countcoco (Dec 28, 2010)

Large amazon swords and vallisineria are two good options it your substrate is moderately fertile. 

As far as stem plants go, you should try a large variety. Although some may grow quickly, they also may die and disintegrate just as quickly.

I recommend trying limonphila indica, rotala rotundifolia, bacopa australis, ludwigia repens, heteranthera zosterifolia, and sagittaria.


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

thanks for the plant ideas 

any smaller critters that are known for having a noticable herbivore diet ?

hard part i notice when looking up critters is most sites are only concerned with if they'll eat prepaired foods, flakes & pellets and such. makes it hard 

so far the search is "what eats .... " for each specific plant.
most results are from forums about people concerned about what's eating their prized plants.

the worst plants are those that are acknowledged that people can eat them, ... then no aquarium critters are listed. duckweed seems to be an exception, find results for both - also a source for kidney stones :/


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## atc84 (May 18, 2013)

as far as i know, only if you have a large amount of plants in comparison to fish, will you be able to achieve that. You can also breed shrimp before you add fish, and they will usually be able to sustain themselves without all being eaten. If your looking for something simply lower maintenance, you can get an automatic feeder.


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## Flear (Sep 29, 2012)

i'm toying with an idea, like many before me and many more to come, ... searching for the elusive self-sustaining tank.

realisticaly, it's impossible, ... well maybe so, maybe not, ... isn't it all 'what eats what' ?

too much munching on plants i don't think is self-sustaining, too much munching on critters i don't think is self-sustaining, no matter how few fish, critters, or others at the top of the food-chain.

so i'm not going after self-sustaining with the idea of reproducing generation after generation, just if i can keep the food alive day after day, month after month.

keeping the tank clean, keeping the substrate healthy, ... those are easy. keeping enough live food sustaining itself in the tank, ... that's tricky.

the tank i have currently is totaly overgrown with plants, just happens that the fish i picked seem to have a preference not for plants but a more meaty diet. it wasn't till this point in my tanks life i have come to the point to seriously look at the 'what-eats-what' perspective to include critters with a more herbivore tendency.

somehow i'm thinking 60-80% plant preferred diet. although i think 60% might be closer to the reality. which is similar to our own diet i think, well i think we're closer to 70% plant.

plants and plankton with a higher protein content then become preferred. moina & duckweed both score high on that and both grow/reproduce very quickly.

figuring out moina & worms for live food was simple enough. dono about tubifex or blackworms. everyone is scared of tubifex worms because of how they have been cultured/grown in the past. what they can survive in is a breeding ground for every disease that can kill ... anything. in the tubifex vs. blackworm search, ... what's got higher protien contents, what reproduces faster, but no everyone is scared of how tubifex used to be cultured and so such comparisons are out of the question. how do you treat tubifex cultures to make them safe for fish, so they themselves don't have any parasites, ... every search result turns into parasites affecting humans and treatment of people.

had a random thought, ... would other zooplankton be capable of eating those parasites. there are zero studies or inquiries on that topic i have come across.

but that's all off-topic, i'm stuck with self-experimentation on those ideas.

back to 'what-eats-what' in the plant/critter side of things, ... there's not a lot of information. as i mentioned, searches that have any results i'm familiar with being able to use amounts to "what eats .... plants" which turns into forum results of people concerned about their plants. which amounts to people concerned about aesthetics in a tank that would die if left alone without being fed on a very regular basis. right down to they need to change the water on a regular basis to prevent the tank from going toxic.

my nitrates are 20, and dropping ... no water changes, the plants will start to enter nitrogen deficiencies ... most people change water because the nitrates are climbing out of control. isn't 40 for nitrates a preferred stable level for plant health ?

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trying to do all the homework i can to find the right critters to balance the right plants at the moment so i can just buy what's actually needed.... so i'm asking around 

edit:

most people laugh at the whole self-sustaining idea. but looking at individual parts there is a lot people have tried and done, and learned from they are willing to contribute.


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