The Puffer Forum

guys, i've seen a lot of people having planted setups with their fahakas.. question though, are plants safe with these guys? i have a semi planted tank with anubias and was wondering if it would be possible for me to put my fahaka there with no problems with damaged leaves and all..

Mine doesn't eat them but does chew at them, I end up with a lot of floating plants.

Same here, with plastic plants. They have been kown to do a lot of rearanging of their plants too.

I have given up with the whole planted tank idea, it's the fahaka I want so it will have to be rocks!

thanks guys.. guess i have to scratch the planted tank idea then.. just bogwood

Sorry to reply so late, but I felt bad to see you discouraged so figured I'll add what I can. I have a fahaka in a planted tank. I decided that plants are my favorite part of freshwater and I just couldn't stand it. It is a pain in the arse sometimes, I have to feed just before and have a spotter on hand whenever I need to prune and propagate, I was not in my right mind when I designed the tank hood height and I take my own name in vain, often, during aforementioned gardening. But in a tank that big seeing lush live plants it just gives me such satisfaction to hear the oooh and aahh.
Now I feed gut loaded live food once a week for enrichment, I mean in my mind living a big tank by yourself seems boring I try to keep it "fun". However my plants pay a price for a fahaka to go hunting. When I see dinner dart into a plant I really like or have to baby along, it hurts a little heh. So far though the only thing that hasnt survived was pearlgrass because of the burying my fish likes to do in the foreground area I so badly wanted to carpet. Everything else grows back thanks to the miracle of seachem ferts and co2.
So in the end I guess even though there are negatives I really enjoy keeping the plants in this tank. Because of the activity my aquascape is usually influenced by forces of nature (big mean football shaped forces ) but I just try to roll with it and act like I meant for it happen. Yeah it doesn't always work, but there have times when I think it looks butchered, and guests still look at me like I'm putting them on when I tell them the plants aren't fake, and that makes it worth it