Aquarium Plants - Importance of Natural Aquarium plants Part 2

Below are other important reasons for using natural plants in modern aquariums…

• The first obvious importance lies in the value as decoration for the aquarium. A thickly planted aquarium needs no plastic or paper background (as is common with most aquariums around the country). Since the real stuff is right there in your tank, an aquarium would look rather bare without the addition of plants much like a soccer pitch without grass!

• Natural Aquarium plants also serve as food (mineral) suppliments for fish that require occasional variety to their monotonous flake meals. They also serve as a conditionor and indicator of water quality. Many plants, especially the Myriophyllum special water millfoils break into pieces when hard water is added into the tank, this could be an indication of unsuitability of the water for fish.

• Many large leafed plants help reduce the need for cleaning the aquarium front glass because of their role as inhibitors to the growth of the smaller plants especially the green and brown algae by shading, thus starving them and reducing their proliferation on the front glass. The large leafed plants also provide shelter and hiding places for the smaller and less aggressive fishes.

• Egg-laying fishes can only spawn when there is a spawning medium in form of a bunch of feathery plants.

• On the whole, plants provide a security factor which is a vital attribute for fish to sette in as pets in your aquarium. They  prefer a place that looks more like “home” to them.