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Re: Planted Guppy Tanks
Someone was recently asking about planted guppy tanks - there was a concern
expressed over growing plants in water with salt in the water.
I've kept guppies for as long as I've kept aquariums (over 30 years and
counting), and every one of them has contained plants. My favourite plant in
a guppy tank is Water Sprite, and I use it either planted (in individual
clay pots) or left floating. It grows fast, is hardy and will tolerate salt
better than a lot of more delicate species.
My only concession in my guppy tanks is that I generally don't have
substrate in the tank - all of the plants are potted individually. This
makes maintenance of the tanks much easier as I feed heavily and like to
keep to a tight maintenance schedule. My main concern is keeping bacterial
and fungal levels low so the uneaten food and detritus is vacumed out
regularly (every couple of days).
While it is generally true that guppies are hardwater fish and can tolerate
salt concentrations higher than a lot of other species, I rarely add salt to
my tanks, except for tanks containing newly acquired breeding stock. If you
_really_ want to raise the TDS, try using Seachem's Livebearer Salt, which
is formulated to do so without adding excess NaCl, which is what common salt
contains. Check out Seachem's website for details on the product.
James Purchase
Toronto