traded my albino cories for oto cats

[undercutter]

now I have 16 gallons planted tank with a betta, 6 oto cats, about 8 cherry shrimp and 2 assassin snails

it was impossible to feed my cories because betta would go for their sinking pallets until he was completely bloated so I would have to quarantine him in a net each time which was a pain, feeding at night didn't make any difference either

it seems to work out because I have significant algae growth for some reason, even though it's a low light 18 watt set-up with no fertilizer. still have brown algae diatoms after 6 months even though it doesn't seem to grow much anymore, and if I don't clean the glass for a month I get green growth on the glass which I have to scrape off with a metal scraper

it's been almost 2 weeks and otos keep eating algae and completely ignore an algae wafer if I drop it in so they must be getting enough food

I think I'm going to crush a piece of algae wafer in water once a week and put it in the tank just to give them something extra to suck on, as well as for shrimp and snails, since I'm not feeding bottom feeders directly they still need something to eat I assume?

oto cats

my betta

the tank

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

What are your plants planted in? Can plants grow in gravel?

 

[aqua_chem]

Yes, yes they can

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Do they grow well in large gravel substrate?

 

[undercutter]

yes plants grow in gravel

pretty much all the low light plants, which is the only thing you can have with a low light set up 1-2 watts per gallon, have a rhizome, which is a main root that can not be buried or it will start to rot, however the little roots that go from it can be buried in the gravel which is what I did with 3 plants in front

the roots also attach themselves to substrate almost like glue after a while, so if you tie a rhizome to a rock or wood the roots should eventually grow around it and attach the plant to it, that's what I'm trying to do with a bolbitus plant on the left

took a little bit of research online to figure all this stuff out at first

the bolbitus has been there for about 3 weeks, it's not doing much growing but it's not dieing either so we'll see

 

[FreshwaterTropical]

Are there any plants that can be in brighter light? I like the tying it to the rock thing. Might have to try that.