HEHEH I like Amazon swords, and I do have a green thumb. Wet or dry.
I used to have a pair of amazon swords that got so big I was able to sell them to the local shop as motherplants since they were constantly sending off more plants. They no longer fit in the 55g tank after only 1 year!!
Angles you say, I'm going to do my homework first, but what are the diffrences between the types??? I saw some HUGE ones in a local shop the other day and was amazed by them. I've always stuck to really simple fish. 30g with 30 neons, 55g with 14 Tigers that are oddly extra agressive. My office betta and the wifes 30g fancy gold fish.
So Angles will be a interesting new challange. I'll mix the substrat about 30/50/20 ecco / gravel / pool sand. I've found for the price it works great. Really it's a little more things than that but I'll leave that to a planted thread on another day that I have time to disect a tank setup for people.
Thanks for the help
-Chris
No problem Chris,
Pterophyllum scalare pure-breds, that is, those that are just one or two generations from wild-caught parents, take some research and time to find. Adult natural scalare reach 8 inches tall, and are truly spectacular. Buy six, as your have about a 75 percent chance of getting a compatible pair. You can leave the others in, as they will become somewhat diminished and subservient to the Alpha male and female. If you remove the others, about half the time the pair turns on each other, so I've always left the others in.
P. scalare is the majority of the genetic makeup of the 'fancy' angels today. ALL the colors and finnage variations are man-made. Natural angels are just silver and black, with blue reticulations on the dorsal and anal fins. Pterophyllum means winged leaf, by the way.
You'd need the plants not only to make them secure, but so they can establish little territories.
If you trim off the runners from those sword plants, and snip off the blooms when the daughter plants form, bleheri can be somewhat civilized, though they will put all their energies into leaf formation, and will put out literally hundreds of leaves.
Might want to add laterite to your substrate mix, as the swords will need the iron.
Dave