[Coler]

Hey folks. Here is my tank. Juwel 180L mixed Africans, and some weeds. Its not to everyone's taste but I'm enjoying it as it looks right now The tank is unfortunately all I can fit right now, so everything is a little bit of a compromise.

 

[Coler]

Here's a prior incarnation of the same tank :

Thanks for looking All your comments and criticism are welcome.

 

[Coler]

Here is how it looked when first set up

And here are my old fake plants, and considerably cleaner rocks; not exactly very natural

As I said, criticism & comments very much appreciated

 

[Mr_Yellow_Shoes]

Wow, great looking tank, what types of plants did you use?

 

[Coler]

Thanks

That's a whole bunch of java moss, java fern, some vallis and a bit of wort of some kind (can't recall).

 

[Mr_Yellow_Shoes]

DId you have to anchor them to the substrate or to the rocks?

 

[Coler]

The vallis is just tucked under the substrate leaving the rhizome exposed. The ferns are just jammed into crevices in the rocks and have rooted on. Some moss I initially tied on, some I just wedged into cracks, holes and crevices again.

 

[css virginia]

The last pic. gets my vote... ...that set-up looks good to me. 8)

 

[myselfdotcom]

The moss or plants survived? Do the fish just tear them apart?

 

[Laurel]

I think the whole "cichlid destroy plants" thing came from huge CA/SA fish. Yes, mbuna can be unruly, but if you have plants that taste bad/are hard to eat, and the fish aren't that big, they'll leave the plants alone. My mbuna nibbled on the baby leaves of my anubias until they realized that they taste terrible, and they ignore my vals(which don't taste terrible) because they're so tough.

 

[Coler]

They nibble a bit on the moss but not much, the fern they don't touch. The vallis is thriving in some spots, but gets hammered in others.

 

[Coler]

The moss or plants survived? Do the fish just tear them apart?

surviving and thriving - the first pics are present day. The rest are various stages it has gone through.

 

[Marconis]

That tank looks sick man, I like it a lot.

 

[MightyWarMonger]

yes verry nice set up. I had some java moss and java ferns and my cichlids dug up the ferns in the sand and the ones I wedged in the rocks they destroyed and the java moss I should have tied down but I just put it in the crvises of rock and it didnt live long I wish i had you're luck with them I think the plants add a lot to the tank.

 

[cichlify]

I found java fern works fairly well...at first they had so many tiny holes in them they looked disgusting...after a while they grew nice and thick and look great now! i just stick them in cracks and holes in my holey rock. the only fish that messes with them is my 4 yr old Metriaclima greshakei. he just likes to decorate his own way but its okay cus he has good taste