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In my aquarium, i only have river rocks that are rounded. besides floating plants, what other plants can i put in? as soon as i get a camera, i will post a pic.

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you could put java moss in there, just get a clump and put a pebble on it to hold it down

-Vincent

What type and how intense is the lighting that you have? Also what size of a tank is this? There are loads of different plants you could place in your tank, however it will depend on your lighting, etc., which ones would be suitable. A little more information would help to give you some advice.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

my dads lighting is pretty intense, but not intense enough-around 5700-6700? And the pebbles are large as i stated above. It is a 35 gallon hex with no CO2 additions.

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Sorry, I didn't realize that the large rocks you were talking about was your substrate. That makes it more difficult for any of the rooted plants, but you could always add a small piece of driftwood or even a larger rock with some java fern or anubius attached to it. As this is a hex tank, I'm assuming the lighting is less than 2 WPG, so you would need to stick with low light type of plants.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Hi
If anyone could have all the wrong things in any one tank,
you have succeeded.

First the tank, a 35G tank. Hexes are "Cute" but not very
practical. Generally they are taller than they are wide.
That means that they have a very small surface area for
exchange of gasses. Small surface areas limit the size
and quantity of fish that can be comfortably housed in that
tank. Rectangular tanks, specifically the "long tanks" are
the best as they have a much larger surface area (length
times width) and can support more fish than the "tall"
tanks.

Next the fish, Koi are a type of carp, they eat practically
anything, and put out huge amounts of waste products (urea
and poop). They grow HUGE. They can be feet long and
pounds heavy. They are pond fish, where they have hundreds
or even thousands of gallons of well filtered of water
swim in. Then the Pleco. Depending upon the type, that
fish also needs a larger tank.
Your (dad's) tank is grossly OVERCROWDED.

Next the substrate. 2 inch river rock will not anchor
plants. Any plant that you try to "plant" will not be able
to anchor itself in the huge spaces between pebbles. Also,
with the fish that you have, who constantly scour the
bottom looking for food, they will be pulled out from
between the rocks within minutes of planting.
The space between the rocks is so huge that fish poop, and
any extra food will get down between the rocks and rot.
If you are going to have plants in any aquarium, and have
a chance that they will grow and thrive, you MUST
use gravel that is a #2, or #3 grain size or smaller.
In that specific tank, with the river rock and the fish,
the only plant that stands barely a half a chance of
growing would be Anubis or Java Fern that already firmly
attached to driftwood, and, even then, I'd be willing
to bet that the koi would eventually rip it off the wood.
Any floating plants that you add, maybe, would also
be eaten by the koi. Anacharis might be a good try,
as would duckweed or another, similiar plant.

In other posts you talk about water quality, poor filtering,
and excessive waste. http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/threads/33062.1.htm?5#
Others have tried to give you some very sage advice. You
should listen, and show the responses to your dad.

Together, you should make some changes.

Frankly, I would find an LFS to take the Koi, strip the
tank, and clean it. I would strip out the filter, and
clean it as well. If it is not a canister style filter,
I would purchase one of them, and use it on the tank.
get some true aquarium gravel, clean it, and add about
3 inches of it to the tank.
Add some plants. With the light that you probably have
on the tank, I would use low light plants such as crypts,
and Anubis. You might try some fast growing stem plants,
but they may, or may not survive with the current bulb.
When was the fluorescent bulb last changed. They wear out
over time and should be replaced annually, whether they
are still burning or not.

If you are going to be successful, it's time for a radical
change.

Frank


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That was quite FRANKly the most shocking and hardest reply yet. i will TRY to change my dads mind, as he loves koi. too bad as he probably wont change his hardset mind. -*Sigh* when my dad finds a dead koi, he will learn. Can i use that natural color gravel? will it work? and stripping clean the tank is going to be hard. i will also have to strip my tank too if i want anubis, as my dad showed me the river rocks BEFORE i found this site. poor gouramis. poor livebearers. poor tank. POOR ME

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I agree that it was pretty harsh what Frank said, but i also agree with every single word of it. wrong rocks, wrong fish, wrong tank. Koi are bred to be view from the top, as if you are looking down at them from over a pond. i have seen very large koi. If your dad loves koi as much as you say he does, he will think about the fish and do what is right for them.

Renegade545,
king of the frontosa

Good point renegade. A major contributing factor though is that he thinks its OK and wont listen to me. Cabesa Dura or hard headed, or stubborn. For another good point is that if I can maintain a tank for a long period of time, I think he will listen to me, what do you guys think?


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