Hi all,
i friend of mine looked at a pic of my tank and he said theres to many plants in there. i dont think there is, all the fish can swim freely around the tank ok.
People tell me this all the time about the tanks, the pond and the garden, I just ignore them. It is your tank, you have it how you want it, "
more plants = better water quality". I also think the argument that you "
can't see the fish" isn't true, if fish like to hide away it is better to give them that option than to stress them by forcing them into the open. I can only ever see the tails of my L129, and I've almost never seen them in the day in the last year, but their tails look in good condition and I'm willing to believe that the rest of the fish is.
In water quality terms you can only have too many plants if they begin to reduce flow, or cover the water surface, to the extent that aeration is compromised at night.
Most fish are less stressed in a complex plant filled environment, even for fish like black water tetras or Apistogramma, plants can stand in for the complex environment created by wood & leaf litter.
For fish that really do come from a plant free environment (Malawi Mbuna,
Hypancistrus zebra etc) you can have the plants in a seperate tank (a lighted sump) or you can grow them in an overtank trickle filter etc.
The only planted tanks I don't like are the "Iwagumi" style (below), and I feel sorry for the fish in these.
I don't do aquascaping, so here is one of mine, just after a trim:
cheers Darrel
