how much are aquatic plants dependent on "nature" for survival???

[Magnum Man]

I notice many of my aquatic plants, don't really like an accumulation of biofilm on them, I suspect in nature, flowing water keeps larger pieces of bio from accumulating... in the glass box, there is likely a slower bio film growth, than in nature, but it still happens, and actually probably accumulates faster... I see many of my fish as caretakers of the plants, as well as shrimp and snails... I do have one large anubias that is thriving in a tank with really no bio grazers, but it's fully in the output flow of one of my hang on back filters... curious how the "Dutch style" or whatever the call the garden boxes full of plants, with almost no fish, keep the plants thriving long term??? do those require manual massage of the plants occasionally??? I understand, less bio film accumulation, with almost no fish, but keeping the plants vibrant and thriving, seems to require some "force" to remove bio film accumulation, weather it comes from livestock, water movement, or the gardener ???

 

[MaloK]

How much are aquatic plants dependent on "nature" for survival???

That's a tricked question ...

100% of everything depends 100% on nature for survival...

The better emulation in your tank the more it will thrive... Some micro / mini / small organisms are so good at keeping a tank completely free of biofilm that it can last months before having to scrape the glasses.

Seed shrimps and detritus worms are a great example of top class aquatic plant gardener. Once established they are very discrete and go places unreachable for the bigger fauna.

In opposition to snails, there is absolutely no leftovers with them. But clean plants and decor. This video show how much cleanup they can achieve from completely dirty water to sparkling clean.

 

[Magnum Man]

I watched the video... was more about feeding fish, than the plants, although it showed the critters in the roots of floating plant's curious if the fancy over planted tanks are using the same critters??? many of those don't have so much as a wilted leaf...

 

[MaloK]

I watched the video... was more about feeding fish, than the plants, although it showed the critters in the roots of floating plant's curious if the fancy over planted tanks are using the same critters??? many of those don't have so much as a wilted leaf...

Yes, the super planted tanks are always having plant decay, but with these guys, it's cleaned at the same pace it occurs, So dead plant matter doesn't remain it's processed and replaced as produced.

The population grows and reduce with availability and at some point all that is left is healthy plants.

Of course the video gives an exaggerated view of what happens. But it's the same at a different scale.

 

[GaryE]

Another big question is how often are your aquarium plants out of the water in nature? That would change dynamics. The only Anubias I saw in Gabon was in extremely shallow water, and if the rains had been say 2 weeks away (they started a few days later) the plant would have been out of water.

Here, we have a lot of shallow stream edge Ludwigia, which ends up exposed as the summer goes on. My Bacopa rises from the water and cascades down the outside of the tank in front of the window, flowering in the air.

After I win a lottery and go spend a few weeks in Central Africa, I expect I'll have found a lot of Anubias out of the water - maybe more than in. But alas, I'm no botanist.

 

[anewbie]

Another big question is how often are your aquarium plants out of the water in nature? That would change dynamics. The only Anubias I saw in Gabon was in extremely shallow water, and if the rains had been say 2 weeks away (they started a few days later) the plant would have been out of water.

Here, we have a lot of shallow stream edge Ludwigia, which ends up exposed as the summer goes on. My Bacopa rises from the water and cascades down the outside of the tank in front of the window, flowering in the air.

After I win a lottery and go spend a few weeks in Central Africa, I expect I'll have found a lot of Anubias out of the water - maybe more than in. But alas, I'm no botanist.

Yea i was wondering about this with regards to crypts as well as anubias; also i know the PSO i have will slowly die after a few years unless it is allowed to grow partially out of water - i have a bunch in my 40 that grows up around the lid (one of the few aquariums i have without a complete cover) and the plant just goes wild in that aquarium since it can get partially emersed for periods until i cut it back.

 

[Magnum Man]

I guess I currently treat all my anubias as submerged plants, but actually every tank that has anubias in, are all open topped... hastifolia and Congensis are both large, with leaves to the surface, but my couple varieties of nana and coffeefola, being smaller, are a couple feet from the surface...
my Congensis are both in 24 inch deep tanks, and one that had several Oto's in was really growing quickly for an anubias, sending up a new leaf weekly, lately my Oto population is down, and the leaves are getting more bio film accumulation, growth has slowed, although I do have a new leaf not quite opened yet, approaching the surface, so it's still growing, it just seems to benefit from a caretaker in the tank... the Congensis in the other tank, that is in the outflow from the filter, is cleaner, but also newer, and hasn't been sending out new leaves yet, but looks healthy...

the 3 taller plants all get into the air, during water changes, but that is only for a minute at most

 

[Magnum Man]

I guess when I used "nature" in quotations, I was referring to some sort of animal caretaker, sucker mouth, shrimp, or even my kisser gourami is a good caretaker... the new coffeefola's are in my hillstream tank, and they are looking great, with a lot of sucker mouthed fish, and the gourami, as caretakers, but even my Congensis
being in a high flow area, like the one in my filter outflow, can better mimic one growing in a river

 

[GaryE]

To me, "nature" and most of what we do in a fishtank aren't that connected. I'm the animal caretaker for my tanks, but I do have a fair amount of Anubias and Bolbitis that is largely algae free. I never clean leaves, and most of my tanks are single species ones.

I tried growing java ferns emersed in my bog tank, but they shrivelled. You would have to destroy the building to keep things humid enough for them.

 

[anewbie]

I have several anubia growing emersed here are a couple:

oops this one is submersed - i'll have to dig around for the other emersed one that is blooming

This one is emersed - but not blooming - it has been emersed for at least 3 years:

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I am smiling....

 

[MrsShrimp]

I have a selection of plants in my 40l aquarium. The latest, Ludwig super red mini I got from amazon, have all died. I used CO2 spray 2 squirts daily and 6 hrs light a day and they succumbed to algae. The rest are anubius which are doing well and some small single stems like the ones in the photo above that are hanging on. So only anubias seem to do ok

 

[anewbie]

What is co2 spray - that sounds like a waste of money if it is a liquid. They sell you this stuff under the misperception that it acts like injection co2 gas and it really doens;t. If it is something like excel that will actually harm your plants.

 

[MrsShrimp]

What is co2 spray - that sounds like a waste of money if it is a liquid. They sell you this stuff under the misperception that it acts like injection co2 gas and it really doens;t. If it is something like excel that will actually harm your plants.

 

[MrsShrimp]

It's Plant CO2 daily carbon boost from Interpet. It's supposed to be good for red plants but mine all died so it didn't help those!!