plants with curing effects?

[zar]

Hi all,

I've often read that planted tanks can have a natural antibiotic or curing effect on fish and that some fish can get cured from milder diseases in planted tanks.
It does sound a bit fairytale-like to me, but is there any specific plants known to have a curing effect on fish or help with certain diseases/bacteria/parasites or similar?

[Greggy]

I agree that planted tanks have many benefits, but I don't think they contain any natural anti-biotics or 'magic' properties, they simply do things that are rather advantageous in an aquarium, such as:

- They consume poisonous Ammonia (NH3)
- They consume Nitrate (NO3)
- They consume Carbon Dioxide (CO2) during photosynthesis
- They consume Caronate and other minerals containing Iron etc
- They release Oxygen (O2) during photosynthesis
- They contain (and probably release) many vitamins
- They look good!

I have read that planted tanks don't often suffer from problems like HITH (Hole In The Head) disease as the extra vitamins that the fish get from nibbling on plants etc boost their immune systems and thus keep problems like HITH etc under control. The extra vitamins go along way to helping to keep fish healthy and as such people have noticed this and drwan their own conclusions about anti-biotic properties.

Also, planted tanks don't seem to have excessive Nitrate problems, and I can vouch for this as my heavily planted 6x2x2 tank is nearly 8 months old and Nitrate is always greater than zero but lower than 5ppm which I think is good for the fish.

Some negatives of owning a planted tank are:

- Constant pruning to removed excessive growth i.e. more maintenance
- It's harder to catch fish with a net should you need to
- Some fish (not Discus as they are too hungry) love to hide amongst the plant leaves
- More mechanical filtration is often needed to remove 'particles' in the water from breaking down plant matter (e.g. decaying leaves etc)
- Plants add dissolved and non-dissolved organic matter to the water

IMO the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Regards,

Greggy

[samir]

I know of some plants with "magic" properties :shock: :shock: :shock:

[Merrilyn]

We're not talking about 'those' plants samir.

Now get back to work :whip

And you do have too much time on your hands :lol:

[zar]

Hehehe

yeah, crushed "magic plant" leaves to relieve stress and stop the fish from darting around :)
I wonder what would happen to Red Devils or similar aggro fishes that are given regular "magic plant" dips :p, they might become so peaceful that they can live with guppies :)

[Professor_J]

I dunno about magic plant dips or just putting the leaves in the tank....

Probably have more luck building the magic aquarium by hooking up the inlet of the pump for your airstone in an ingenious way... 8-)

Might make the red devils peaceful, but it might also give them a case of the munchies and you'll start losing tankmates. Or your arm when you go to do maintenance...