Would more Biodiversity in the fish tank be more benificial?

[daniel]

I was wondering the other day about other things i could grow in the tank with the fish. I am currently trying Vietnamese mint (hanging in a small pot from the side) and I have heard of people growing water chestnuts, ect.

This led me to think about adding a few, lets say, ornamental plants and animals to the tank. i.e. water lilies, snails to keep the green slime down, fresh water mussels to help filter the water, ect. Would i be correct in thinking that a more diverse "ecology" in the tank may help to keep things more stable and healthy. or will the fish (SP and eventually barramundi) just eat everything?..


Thanks in advance

[Murray]

It is an interesting idea. The only way is to give it a try. If you have Jade or Silver perch, they will eat vegetable matter, so I think they would be a problem to plants in the fish tank.
When I first started in Aquaponics I went to the aquarium shop and purchased a variety of aquatic plants thinking it would be nice for the Jade perch. They stripped them all in a week. It was a good food source for them.

[GaryD]

Hi Daniel,

Would i be correct in thinking that a more diverse "ecology" in the tank may help to keep things more stable and healthy. or will the fish (SP and eventually barramundi) just eat everything?..

Yes.......the greater the bio-diversity, the more the system mimics nature and the more stable it will be. Depending on what fish species you keep they will eat either the plants or the animal organisms (or both) but you fix that by attaching your mussells, water chestnuts, duckweed, etc to your system without giving the fish direct access........like the duckweed tank on my new system.

Gary

[daniel]

That reminds me, I do have a separate, but small, duckweed pond hanging off the side at the moment. I pinched a small amount from bunnings a few weeks ago and put it into another plant i was buying.

In any case. it is taking forever to grow. I thought it should double in size every week or two. It may have doubled size in maybe 3-4 weeks. Am i doing anything wrong??

[nick]

i am pretty sure the plant growth is temp and nutrient dependant so if it is cold or you don't have many fish this could be affecting it's growth.
Also excess water movement can affect it.

[daniel]

hmm, ta. i will look into that..