article: Plants and algae
Certainly one of the highlights for those who want an aquarium is the view of a bathtub filled with a dense aquatic vegetation including brightly colored fish dart. Aquatic plants are used for many purposes: in addition to flaunt their beauty, serve as water purifiers, as a refuge and environment for spawning by fish. Like fish, plants also have different shapes, sizes and different natural environments and may be considered limited by two factors alone: do not move, and many are very delicate. In designing the schema of an aquarium, you're trying to mask his obvious form of "cash". Plants have an important function for this purpose, as they can hide the corners of the tank and, if planted with care, can create the visual illusion of "stretch" deep into the bath. Most aquatic plants are rooting species, hence requiring a substrate on which to develop. The gravel of a common aquarium, although it is quite suitable as a substrate for rooting, for certain exotic species can be enriched with a mixture of fertile soil and peat. There are commercially prepared food with which aquatic plants, certainly preferable to a mixture made by us.
Algae aquarium.
In freshwater aquariums the great enemy of the plants is made from seaweed. In the water appear as a green haze which then spread over everything a green sticky film or form a tangle of green cobwebs smother the plants. There are many factors that contribute to the presence and the rapid spread of the algae: the excessive food, too much light, the scarcity of the plants. Paradoxically, it should encourage the development of marine algae in the aquarium, where trees are scarce, since their beneficial presence helps to control the nitrogen compounds and serves as food for some fish.
The many species of plants suitable for freshwater aquarium hobbyists are often divided by three distinct groups: species rooting cuttings and floating plants.
"Rooting PLANTS": this group includes the species of Sagittaria and Vallisneria, leaves long and narrow, ideal for masking the glass walls of vascha. Cryptocoryne species, with broader leaves, are used to upholster the bottom of the tank, while belonging to the genera APOGETON and Echinodorus species most suitable high as isolated specimens, to be the focal point in the composition of the aquarium. Most of the plants rooting multiply emitting stolons from which new plants are developed that can be detached from the mother plant and to take root elsewhere. Aponogeton species, which have tuberous rhizomes rather than true roots, bloom on the surface of the water and flowers can be pollinated to obtain seeds. There are plants that grow rapidly in the aquarium, and they can get to them regularly and new cuttings riattecchire. Especially good for cuttings are Cabomba, CERATHOPHYLLUM, Myriophyllum, Elodea, and Hygrophila Limnophila. These species are often used as the substrate by fish for laying their eggs, but can also be "browsed" by those who prefer a diet in the plant.
"FLOATING PLANTS": a number of species float on the water surface and their creeping roots give shelter to the fish fry once the eggs hatched. Anabantidi Some fragments of these plants use to build their nests of bubbles. LEMMA, AND CURLY Salvinia are all kinds suitable for the aquarium, although their rapid development often becomes excessive, then you can prune with a net to feed the fish pests. The water lettuce (Pistia sp.) Comes out from the edges of the tank.
Plants and algae
