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Geophagus and plants...

dirtyblacksocks

dirtyblacksocks

Fire Eel
MFK Member
With the upcoming harem of geo's I'll be getting I'm trying to figure out some creative ways of making my plants geophagus proof.
I've got various crypts and stemmed plants I plan on putting into this tank, and thought I would list what I plan to do.
Perhaps some one can give me some other constructive ideas - or tell me their experiences with getting everything how it should be.
1. Obviously, I could put the plants into pots, this runs too problems.
a. I would have to repot the crypts as they grow larger - unless some one knows where I can get the black plastic pots that most plants come in at the LFS
b. It doesn't look too natural, the argument could be made that I could cover the pots with substrate, but they'll just be revealed by the geo's.
2. Lay some rockwork around the plants. I figure if I put some riverstone or lava rock around the root balls of the plants the geo's will just ignore it. But then, I don't know either!
3. Weight the plants and hope for the best.
So, any thoughts?
 
yeah the pots try that . you could silocine some of the gravel to the pot so it looks naturaller than it showing plastic
 
What sized Geophagus are you buying? If you're getting the usual 2" Juveniles at the same time as your plants are in then if you're lucky they'll develop a solid enough root system before they start really churning your substrate.

Mine will dig around plants but won't expose or try to eat the roots of them. I have both of my plants placed where they are 3/4 covered by wood or river rocks. I did the layout first and then placed the plants. I'm sure you know Cichlids in general will rip plants out if they don't like your aquascaping. If they do get torn out, try a different spot, or rearrange some of the decor in that spot to fit the plant in more solidly.

Either way, I've never seen Geophagus actually eat plants, so if they do get torn up, replanting the odd plant here or there every week or so shouldn't be too much of a hassle (unless you have a tank over 24" high :p). As I said previously, if you're getting juvenile Geos and the plants are already in/going in at the same time, and especially if your substrate is sand, then the plants should get a big enough root network out to hold themselves in before the Geo's get big enough to do real damage to the surrounding substrate.
 
Going to be getting some tapajos red heads or orange heads at around 2" or 3" from my understanding.

My sand bed is only about 3" deep, and I was planning on placing the plants around the outskirts of the tank behind rocks ect...and attach the rest to driftwood.
 
Just placing rocks around them will be fine. I've got a pair of Nics that do a lot more damage than my geos. Attach what you can to some driftwood too, looks good and no worries with being uprooted.


Jamie
 
I have kept many Geophagus with plants without problems, including with G tapajaros.
That's java fern in the background of the pic below.

water sprite in this pic

Putting rocks around roots works well, and Anubius and java fern work great, because of the epiphytic root systems.

 
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