Hungry tetras....

Question
Hi Nicole-

What is the procedure for bringing home and introducing a plant into your aquarium? I just want make sure I've been doing it right.

And are there certain plants that certain fish REALLY like? I have two red eyed tetras and they seem to be totally shredding up my underwater alfalfa plant. Is there anything i can do to maybe make the plant less tasty to them? Are there certain plants i could get that are less tasty to my tetras? I just find it kind of strange that every time i walk in the room, i see my two little guys nibbling at the stalk of a different alfalfa stem. They've chewed a couple of them so theyre razor thin and they break right off the plant. It's kinda funny to watch but also getting kind of expensive.


Answer
Hi Shelby,

You should take a few precautions when introducing plants into your aquarium, particularly if the plants are kept with fish, because a number of diseases can be transferred via any wet object placed in the tank (a decoration, a plant, live or fake, gravel, etc) - particularly ich. Also, snails can be a problem with the introduction of live plants. So here is a page on prepping plants:
http://www.aquajake.com/blog/planting-the-tank/preparing-a-plant-for-planting/di...

Also, here is how to plant aquatic plants:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?dept_id=0&siteid=6&acatid=331&aid=...
This article shows you how to plant a variety of different plants, including stemmed plants and bulbs.

I am not sure what you mean by alfalfa plant, because alfalfa doesn't grow submerged. Maybe you mean that it looks like alfalfa? Baby tears sort of does. Go to google.com and type "Micranthemum umbrosum" (the scientific name for baby tears) - and see if the pictures of it look like the plant you have. It's good to know the proper name.

Fish usually like to eat plants like elodea/anacharis (which also goes by the common name of pondweed) and they also like to nibble on pond plants such as duckweed. If your tetras are eating plants, that means they would probably eat vegetables too, such as spinach or cucumber bits - you can boil them lightly in the microwave to soften them a bit first. Here's some plants that fish love:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/gldfshmalnut.htm
The list of plants is about halfway down.

Also here's a list of foods fish like, besides dried foods:
http://www.mongabay.com/fish/food.htm


Some inedible aquatic plants are java fern, java moss, anubias, and onion plants. See if you can find those. However, if you provide them with alternative green foods, you should see a reduction in nibbling.

Another plant that I've had success is Apongeton plants, grown from bulbs. Look for a blister pack of "live plant bulbs" at Walmart or a pet store such as Petco or Petsmart.

I hope that helps! Here's a site I really like that shows you how to plant aquariums in a low tech way:
http://naturalaquariums.com/

Take care,
Nicole