Advice please (or a steer to existing threads). I'm setting up a tank (Aqueal Leddy 75) as a stock tank / growing out tank (mainly livebearers). I'd like as much planting in it as possible, but I'll often be catching fish from it. 'It is very hard to catch fish in a heavily planted tank', says Karen Randall, in a masterpiece of understatement. Diana Walstad talks about having rocks and bricks at one end of the tank, then when she wants to catch fish, she herds them to that end of the tank and puts in a tank divider to keep them there while she catches them, which doesn't sound like it makes for an attractive tank.
When I was preparing for the 90L cube, I grew on plants in a couple of smaller tanks and in one I used clay plant pots. When I bought my first fish, the space below the pots made great refuges, and it's easy to take out a pot for a few minutes while catching fish, but it's a utlitarian aesthetic. Still, a small pot can grow a big aquatic plant.
I've enjoyed the thread about 'are you a fishkeeper or an aquascaper' and I realise that keeping and breeding fish is very important to me, but so are the plants, and 'system keeping'. This isn't really going to be an aquascaped tank, but I'd like it to be attractive to look at and not just functional. Fish are happier with well-planted tanks, and none of the fish that interest me are big plant wreckers, but it is very easy to wreck planting with a net.
When I was preparing for the 90L cube, I grew on plants in a couple of smaller tanks and in one I used clay plant pots. When I bought my first fish, the space below the pots made great refuges, and it's easy to take out a pot for a few minutes while catching fish, but it's a utlitarian aesthetic. Still, a small pot can grow a big aquatic plant.
I've enjoyed the thread about 'are you a fishkeeper or an aquascaper' and I realise that keeping and breeding fish is very important to me, but so are the plants, and 'system keeping'. This isn't really going to be an aquascaped tank, but I'd like it to be attractive to look at and not just functional. Fish are happier with well-planted tanks, and none of the fish that interest me are big plant wreckers, but it is very easy to wreck planting with a net.