planted tank enquiry for channa sp assam's

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south coast nelly

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 18, 2007
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Medellin Colombia
channa.aquaticinterests.co.uk
Hi guy's, Iam thinking of Real plants to put in my tank with my soon to be channa sp assam's.....I have never kept real plant's before as they alway's die on me, what substate should i have<presently i have gravel>also what type of plant's should i get?where's best place to purchase them?
Thank's in advance
 
With my assam Nelly, I had a similar setup to your current Channa setup. Lots of plastic plants and live floating plants. But I'd reccomend Java fern and Java moss tied to wood/rocks, the fern will provide shelter for the adults and the moss a place to feed for possible young? Also the two plants mentioned don't need anything special to survive. I'd also say species of Crypt. may be a good suggestion, low light, foreground plants, maybe stick a root tab by every few of them. Something fast growing like hydrophillia polsoma (something along those lines) may be good to you as well, but it will need trimming quite often. Then also you know, a large amount of floating plants, water lettuce, salvinia, duckweed, Amazon frogbit etc.

And one more water sprite/wister might interest you, can plant it and leave some of it floating. Anubias spp. are other low light plants which attach to wood/rocks. I've mentioned the species I have, simply because they are easy to keep, not needing strong lighting, CO2 etc. Also they can cope with low light levels which will be present due to the floating plants. Also the others tied to wood/rocks mean you wouldn't have to alter your substrate.

Moss balls are also another species which require neither bright light, nor a special substrate.

I'm just typing these as I think of them, hence the lack of flow really to this!

As for where to buy it, I usually use a good local LFS, however there a number of online sites out there.

Too add to the plants I had in my assams tank, I went slightly DIY and drilled some holes in a clear plastic lid and put "lucky bamboo" in them, so the roots and bottoms were in the water. They grew exceptionally well I found and kept the water a good quality.
Picture:
DSC00257-1.jpg


And the assam itself (poor pics):
SH2.jpg

SH3.jpg
 
haha that's a great idea, look's very pleasing on the eye's....thank's for the great info mate, by the way beautiful channa
 
I'm considering setting myself up a small Channa tank again. Now I have learnt more about then, just a breeding pair of gaucha or bleheri or something similar most likely. I'll go for the simple live plants approach in that tank, Java fern and Java moss on the wood, moss balls etc. etc. I may try buying a few lots of plants on ebay, just to see how they are.

The bamboo was just an experiment that could probably have been done much better, and looked more asthetically pleasing I know! :D
 
yes my channa addiction's going through the roof, well by tuesday it will...hehe...
go for it mate,
 
hehe go to the snakehead media lounge and have a butcher's....there's a post from the boss man, for southcoastnelly....enjoy
 
iam imagining but i have brought plant's before and they alway's die......I route them in the ground but it doe's nothing for them...
 
What kind of plants are you looking for?

And what kind of lightning do you have?

In my experience it is easier to keep plants on sand or very small gravel.

These are some plants which are easy to keep with low lightning, no co2 dosing and other fertilisers:
Vesicularia dubyana (java moss)
Microsorum pteropus (java fern, very slow growing)
Anubias species (also very slow)
Cryptocoryne species (last slow grower :P)
Shinnersia rivularis (english name?)
Hygrophila polysperma
Vallisneria species (IMO Americana, Asiatica and spiralis are most usefull. and especially Gigantae is NOT usefull since it can grow up to 3 metres :WHOA:)
Echinodorus species (got them small, big even red!)
Heteranthera zosterifolia (something like starweed? very fast grower, very decorative)
Rotala rotundifolia (I love this one. Low light is fine, but with stronger lightning it will easily become pink/red. this plant even grows downwards!)
Nymphaea lotus (nice plant, red and green species. you can keep them small by cutting of the big leaves. you can keep them low by cutting off the leaves which grow to the surface. But for channa's these surface leaves can provide great cover.)

For Cryptocryne sp., Echinodorus sp. and maybe for the Nymphaea sp. you'll have the fertilise the bottom with red clay (buy at pet store, dont use clay from your garden). Don't use anything but clay in your bottom. Some people use organic fertiliser in their bottom, but this will always rot over time, resulting in algae plagues.

For my tanks I use bare sand. I insert some clay tabs in the bottom near the plants that need them.

Low light (15w for 72 liters), non-co2, no fertilizers and very low maintenace tank:
http://www.venividivissie.org/gallery/image.php?album_id=1134&image_id=28465
(showing Valisneria sp. Cryptocryne Walkeri, @ kinds of Java fern and rotela sp.)

More light (60w on 172 liters), co2 addition and vertilizers tank:
http://www.venividivissie.org/gallery/image.php?album_id=1134&image_id=28466

need more, just ask
 
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