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Preferred plant for fry hide (besides moss)


ccc24
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I’m about to start my first intentional breeding set-up. That said, moss and I have a love/hate relationship. I love to buy it and it hates to grow. It never seems to get any bigger/expand. I’ve had some in a tank for 6 months and no change. If anything I think there might be less. 
 

That said I can grow other plants without much trouble, my Java ferns, Madagascar lace, water sprite, cabombas, etc are all quite happy. 
 

What other plant besides the popular mosses (tried both Java and Christmas - Christmas I can get to live, Java always dies) can I build the fry hide out of? I was leaning toward a thicket of cabomba but are there any downsides to that?

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I think it depends on the fish species and if they like to hide at the bottom or top of the tank.

For top of tank kind of fish, I will use masses of floating java fern or penny wort. Both are very easy to grow.

For fry that hide on the bottom, I use large java ferns with extensive hair-like root systems stuck to rocks or drift wood. Also leaf litter. Masses of anubias. Really just about anything. 

I tend to just use what I have on hand in abundance. I have literal buckets of java fern, so that tends to be my goto.  

I also like java fern and anubias because I can just pick them up out of the tank and plop them into another tank to jump start a cycle. After some time, you just naturally wind up with a lot of it. 

When this stuff gets too gunky, I'll drop it in my CRS tank and they'll have it sparkling clean in about a day.

Edited by tolstoy21
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What plant is guppy grass, actually? I’d love to pick some up but I’m not sure what to look up. 
And what is a “CRS rank?” (I feel like it’s got to be obvious but my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet). 

On 7/16/2022 at 9:27 AM, tolstoy21 said:

I think it depends on the fish species and if they like to hide at the bottom or top of the tank.

For top of tank kind of fish, I will use masses of floating java fern or penny wort. Both are very easy to grow.

For fry that hide on the bottom, I use large java ferns with extensive hair-like root systems stuck to rocks or drift wood. Also leaf litter. Masses of anubias. Really just about anything. 

I tend to just use what I have on hand in abundance. I have literal buckets of java fern, so that tends to be my goto.  

I also like java fern and anubias because I can just pick them up out of the tank and plop them into another tank to jump start a cycle. After some time, you just naturally wind up with a lot of it. 

When this stuff gets too gunky, I'll drop it in my CRS tank and they'll have it sparkling clean in about a day.

 

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On 7/16/2022 at 9:45 AM, ccc24 said:

What plant is guppy grass, actually? I’d love to pick some up but I’m not sure what to look up. 
And what is a “CRS rank?” (I feel like it’s got to be obvious but my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet). 

 

probably Cherry Red Shrimp, could also be Cant Remember S...😜

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On 7/16/2022 at 6:49 AM, ccc24 said:

What other plant besides the popular mosses (tried both Java and Christmas - Christmas I can get to live, Java always dies) can I build the fry hide out of? I was leaning toward a thicket of cabomba but are there any downsides to that?

It depends on what you're breeding.  PSO grows like a weed, has insanely dense leaves and is a bush when it is under the right conditions.  It is essentially a "stem moss" when I had it. 

Something like otos want something with slightly bigger leaves.  For corys I have had awesome success with different size moss balls.

If you just want cover, hardscape and piles of things works pretty good for that, but you might have to check for fry.  (smaller rocks on the bottom, flat rock on the top to make it easy to lift / check)  I have even used pleco caves as a home to protect fry.

If you want to have cover, just have something that gives cover and lets them feel like they can be seperated from the bigger fish without the bigger fish able to get at them easily.  Buce, crypts, swords, val, PSO, stem plants densely packed, etc.  There's a few ways to achieve this.  Even rocks with anubias nana, or nana petite can be amazing cover for fry.

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On 7/16/2022 at 11:03 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

It depends on what you're breeding.  

Various killifish starting with clown killis. I’m more aiming for “replenishment” breeding to begin with (casual reproduction to have more by the time the original group reaches the end of their natural lifespans). 

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On 7/16/2022 at 7:49 AM, ccc24 said:

I’m about to start my first intentional breeding set-up. That said, moss and I have a love/hate relationship. I love to buy it and it hates to grow. It never seems to get any bigger/expand. I’ve had some in a tank for 6 months and no change. If anything I think there might be less. 
 

That said I can grow other plants without much trouble, my Java ferns, Madagascar lace, water sprite, cabombas, etc are all quite happy. 
 

What other plant besides the popular mosses (tried both Java and Christmas - Christmas I can get to live, Java always dies) can I build the fry hide out of? I was leaning toward a thicket of cabomba but are there any downsides to that?

Roots of floating plants (duckweed, frogbit, redroot floaters, water lettuce, water hyacinth if an outdoor summer tub) are excellent hiding spots for fry. So is milfoil, hornwort and cabomba. Basically, any plant that can grow densely like pearlweed, to provide holes small enough for fry to slip through, but not any larger fish who may want to eat the fry. Plus, plants provide hiding spaces for microfauna for the fry to eat.

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On 7/17/2022 at 1:03 AM, WhitecloudDynasty said:

I love hornwort until it die and fall everywhere.

I recommend hair algae, it's free and grow like a weed. FB_IMG_1658037751490.jpg.468241fd4090cd0ca2064089022044cd.jpg

I can grow Me some hair algae. Probably my best aquatic skill. 😂

How did you get it to shape like that?

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On 7/17/2022 at 7:07 AM, ccc24 said:

I can grow Me some hair algae. Probably my best aquatic skill. 😂

How did you get it to shape like that?

I trim mine, I was trying to grow some to replace marimo moss balls... It was not as successful as I hoped as the hair algae in my tanks grew way faster than the balls did, and soon took over🤣

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On 7/17/2022 at 10:49 AM, WhitecloudDynasty said:

Mine does that by itself

So interesting. In my 20g high tank, mine grows in a flying saucer/disk shape. In my 29, it's just blobs. They both have sponge filters so I do not know why the very different shapes. 

 

On 7/16/2022 at 9:49 AM, ccc24 said:

That said I can grow other plants without much trouble, my Java ferns, Madagascar lace, water sprite, cabombas, etc are all quite happy.

You know, I was shocked at how many fry my large Amazon sword hid, and how well. I had one that reached all the way to the top of the tank and then some, and when I disturbed it one day I saw it contained dozens and dozens of fry I did not know had arrived.

I also really like corkscrew valisneria--it provides cover from substrate to surface.

I don't know that either of these would do better than cabomba but they will likely do the trick if people for those who can't grow guppy grass, cabomba or anacharis. I've had mixed results with guppy grass and with anacharis. Sometimes it is doing so well it fills the tank, other times it vanishes. My swords and val are consistently there.

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