Does anyone have any large fish (6"+) besides discus in their planted tanks?

i had 24 jack dempseys ready to go and I was about to put half of them into a 180 gallon. Unfortunately, my school upped the tuition and I couldn't buy the tank. Otherwise, I would have had a planted dempsey tank!! I was looking at crypts, etc. protected from digging with rocks, floaters, moss, etc. to allow the plants to be "movable" so that the dempseys could rearrange some plants to their pleasure.

I had an Ornate bicher for 3 years. did pretty good for a long time but ate a lot of other fish lol. He/she didnt tear up the plants to much but i would never recommend one for a tank under 65g, it loved hanging out on the plants.

I've always wanted a tank with some Sorubim Lima (they are more of a mid water fish that don't mess up the bottom) and swordplants. I now have a collection of swordplants but can't find S.Lima in this part of the pond! I've seen people mixing arowana(that's been trained to eat pellets and frozen food) with plants and small fish. I also have a friend that owns a nice 'biotope' of anubias, bolbitis and ropefish.

I had a pair of Green Severums recently in my planted tank. They were destructive, uprooting small plants and nipping the tips off others, so I got rid of them.

There is someone on this forum that has piranha, I can't remember who.

Edit: Here's the piranha tank I was thinking of. The member is j66213b.
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fish-planted-aquarium/51603-piranha-planted-tank.html

I'm interested in this topic, too.. I'm putting together a planted 75 at the moment and would really love some sort of largish CA cichlid as a 'centerpiece'. Unfortunately, I think Viejas will be a bit big (maxing out at 14"), and I'm not that interested in Jacks or Texas.

I think I've settled on trying to find some Sajica or maybe Multispinosa.. Not too big, but bigger than the schoolers and certainly a beautiful focal point.

Yes, thats one of the reasons I was wondering. I have a 125 running Co2 and 276 watts, mostly from t-5s, with ten piranha in it that I am about to plant. I am kind of anticipating an exercise in frustration at the beginning, trying to make the plants stay rooted and what not, but it can be done.

With mine, I plan on planting first and letting the plants set some roots down. I think I'll be waiting a couple of weeks before putting any cichlids (or any other diggers) in there.

I wouldn't want to move all those piranha while I 'scaped, though! I helped a friend redo his 125 (I think), which houses this massive black piranha.. Most nerve-wracking fishtank experience of my life! Expensive fish, squishy human fingers, carpeted floor... oh my!

Check out Festivums, a very pieceful cichlid that grows to 6-8" and dont eat rummys or neons, and most importantly they dont tear up plants.

I have 2 large Silver Dollars in my 125, but I'm defying all of the odds doing it since they are known lawn mowers. I guess I just overwhelmed them with a bunch of Anubias and they finally got tired of it. I also had some 1' + Bala's in there, but they finally died from old age.

My latest addition to the tank will be Frontosa's (after quarantine), so we'll see how that goes.

JanS said:

I have 2 large Silver Dollars in my 125, but I'm defying all of the odds doing it since they are known lawn mowers. I guess I just overwhelmed them with a bunch of Anubias and they finally got tired of it. I also had some 1' + Bala's in there, but they finally died from old age.

My latest addition to the tank will be Frontosa's (after quarantine), so we'll see how that goes.

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Funny you mention that about your Silver Dollars, Jan. I have a young one (about 1.5") and it has not touched my plants yet. It eats whatever I feed the rest of my fish. In fact, I've had more trouble with rainbowfish nipping at fresh plant tips.

Is there a Silver Dollar look-alike that in not a herbivore? All the fish in that genus that I've read about are all herbivores!

davemonkey said:

Funny you mention that about your Silver Dollars, Jan. I have a young one (about 1.5") and it has not touched my plants yet. It eats whatever I feed the rest of my fish.

Is there a Silver Dollar look-alike that in not a herbivore? All the fish in that genus that I've read about are all herbivores!

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Yes, a Piranha. LOL!

Wow, I'm surprised that your SD hasn't touched the plants either.

I tried to change my fish tank to a planted fish tank with my 6.5" eclipse catfish and three 4" clown laoches but they kept up rooting everything as soon as I would plant it. So I would recommend letting plants get well rooted before any large fish go in. The cat fish would simply swim across the tank at night and his tail would send plants all over the place. I have moved the large fish to another tank now. Plants are all were they are supposed to be.

my six huge altums do not bother the plants at all.

vancat said:

my six huge altums do not bother the plants at all.

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How many of those can you put in a 50 gal (48Longx18Tallx13Deep)? I might be moving in a few months, and if I do, I'd want to have other fish than what's there now. Also, would they eat Otocinclus?
-Dave

I have the 5 (woops, did I say 6??) in a 72. They could use more room. You have to have a bunch though to disperse the aggression. I don't want to tell you how many to get, but I'd say 3-4 adults would be filling up a 55.

With altums, though, you are probably going to lose a few by the time they are adults. They are wild fish, and although I don't consider them delicate, they can have unforeseen issues because they are wild. If it were me with a 55 I'd get 5 juvies. You lose a couple, it's OK. If they all grew to adults and it was getting crowded, you'd have no trouble selling a couple.

Will they eat otos? I don't know but they ate all my cardinal tetras!

You may or may not be aware- they are hard to find, and expensive...

I have a single P.scalare (regular angel) in my 46. She's not 6" long yet, but she's at least that tall. She "cleans" long leaves now and then before laying on them.

vancat said:

You may or may not be aware- they are hard to find, and expensive...

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Right, I knew they were more expensive, didn't know how much! Anyway, maybe I'll just try to find some 'normal' looking scalare. I'm not a big fan of the marbled, veil-tail, etc... I want an angel that looks natural. (Still may be a few months down the road anyway...).

Thanks for the info.

sure thing.