Habitat - Indoor :: Looking to introduce plants and fish to my tank

[Phantombaldspot]

I've been tossing around the idea of adding live water plants and some feeder fish into the tank with my two RES. Any advice? Is there anything special I need to do for the plants? Any special type of fish?

Thanks in advance!

[BullDog]

My advise: Don't start with expensive plants or fish. Most RES love to tear into aquatic plants, and fish too! Stay away from goldfish, they're messy and fatty. Minnows or guppies are a good choice.
Many people recommend anacharis for a plant, I understand it grows fast. In the summer, I get water hyacinth and water lettuce. Frankie tears into either plant with enthusiasm. I've found this year Ralph is pretty much leaving it alone.

[theartbook35]

Duckweed is really, really easy to grow. All you really need is the seeds and a bowl of water. Just make sure you cut off the roots before they go in the tank. The roots make a huge mess.

[454Casull]

Duckweed is really, really easy to grow. All you really need is the seeds and a bowl of water. Just make sure you cut off the roots before they go in the tank. The roots make a huge mess.

If they're grown for the purpose of feeding the turtles, doesn't that seem a little inadequate? Plants grown in regular water won't have much nutritional content, right?

[n00bEmpty]

Don't go with anacharis as a first plant. They are very messy when turtles rip their leaves off, took me forever to clean the leaves out of my old tank. Water plants need light in order to grow so letting them sit under your turtle's basking light is generally a good idea.
I don't like anacharis because I only had 9 branches in my tank and my turtles just destroyed the leaves and it was messy all over. Good thing I had some plecos that ate about 25% of the leaves.

[bently11]

I usually always have a few rosy red minnows in my tank if Bentley is hungry. He goes after minnows more than guppies. I'm going to have to disagree with you all on the anacharis. I think it depends on the turtle on how messy the plant gets. Bentley loves anacharis plants. I don't grow plants in my tank (bare bottom) but when I buy anacharis, I just clip it to his veggie clip and it's eaten neatly in the next day or so. If a few stray branches drift away, my filter takes care of it, the fish eat it, or Bentley goes after it.