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Recently i bought new plants for my new 4' tank. After a week my fish (i think) had demolished them. At first i saw the leaves torn and a little tattered, but one day i came home and all the leaves had been ripped off 5 of my plants, with 2 of them untouched. I had 2 angelfish, 2 dwarf gouramis and 2 pearl gouramis. I have since added 8 bronze corys.

What i was wondering is:

a) am i doing something wrong in terms of feeding them?

(which i doubt as a lot of the leaves were ripped off and left to float), i am feeding a mixed tropical flake and even included more vegetarian flake after i noticed the nibbling on the leaves.

AND

b)Which type of plants would be suitable to add with these fish/conditions?

I have gravel, good lighting (10.5 hrs a day), but no CO2 supplementation (no plans to buy any either). The other 2 plants left are doing alright but the algae is starting to overun them.

Hi there,

In answer to your questions:

a) It sounds like you are feeding them a balanced diet, so I wouldn't be too worried about that, keep it up

b) Generally, hardier species are those with tougher, broader leaves: Anubias, Java ferns, and the larger species of Vallisneria... when all is said and done though, the most crucial thing to consider when choosing plants is the intensity of the your light (not just the duration, though 10-12 hours seems like a happy medium between plant health and inhibiting algae outbreak). Most say 2 - 3 Watts per gallon of fluorescent lighting is a good starting point. Bear in mind too, that water absorbs light somewhat, so the deeper the tank, the higher the intensity of light will be required to reach the bottom (and that's without going into what end of the color spectrum gets absorbed the most...).

I have had success with 1 watt per gallon, the trick is to pick plants that can handle low light (Anubias, Crypts etc).

For a good reference of some general plants species have a look at:

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

and

http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-list.html

Hope this helps,
Dex

Hey thanks alot for your help, ill check out those sites now. Hopefully ill get soome more this week.