plants and cichlids

[dss2004]

I am new in the fish business. I started out with a small tank of ten gallons with two convicts. I bought them unknowing of their extreme aggresiveness and quick reproduction. I have since then purchased a 46 gal. bow front and stocked it with other american cichlids.

1 firemouth
1 green severum
1 green terror
1 pink convict
5 lemon tetras

The mixed worked out great and all the species get along well. I decided to add plants to my tank. Mostly swords, java ferns and mosses. I have a few others but have not been able to identify them yet. Anyways, my buddy at the local fish store told me that it is next to impossible to keep the fish that I have with plants. This is very disappointing because I love the fish and I love the plants and work hard at keeping them both happy. i was just wondering if anyone has ever had any success keeping these types of fish with love plants and any ideas to help.

 

[doctawife]

I have been told that you can keep plants and cichlids. I don't have any personal experience to back that up, however. I do plan to try to put together a tank with Lake Malawi cichlids and some plants, just to see.

So if you give me a couple months, I'll get back to you!

 

[wayne]

Your plants are doomed in all honesty - those fishes just dig too much. I had success using relatively inedible plants attached to wood.
You might have some success keeping malawis with plants but you need to plan. They will eat them, and are jsut generally destructive. If you preplant vallis, and give it a couple months to get good rooting established, that might be ok, other java fern and anubias attached to wood and rocks.

 

[Avalon]

Click the "old 100g" part in my sig. All of those plants can be kept with cichlids. I do recommend that you start the plants out while the fish are small, and don't keep jaguars (aka, "earth movers"). To make a long story short, you need heavy duty plants that have heavy duty roots.