The Puffer Forum

I'm looking for plants that might survive with scats, my red scats only seem to eat algae but my silver scats eat everything!! I've got 2 lists below showing plants that might work or definately won't work with silver scats!

Compatible Plants:
Java fern
Vallis Americana (I do occassionall see bite marks though)

Incompatible Plants:
Vallis Spiralis (tiger)
Java Moss
Bacopa Monnieri
Cryptocorne Wendtii
Samalous Valerandi

Does anybody else have red scats and do they eat plants or just algae? My red scats don't even eat the salad & cucumber that i sometimes put in.
Can anybody else add to the 2 lists above?

You might want to PM our Mentor nmonks on this one. Have you looked over his BW plant list?

Pufferpunk wrote:You might want to PM our Mentor nmonks on this one. Have you looked over his BW plant list?

I'll try that thanks. I've read his list and others and i'm working through them slowly but all of the plants that I have to remove from the scat tank go into the puffer tank and it's probably at its limit now to still give them enough swimming space

The short answer is no, there are no plants Scats won't eat. Baensch reports Scats eating Java ferns, and consequently dying from poisoning. I did try Silver Scats with Java ferns, but to be honest the Java ferns fell apart anyway, so it was hard to tell if the Scats were doing the damage or not. In any case the Silver Scats certainly ate everything else, even great clumps of hair algae I collected from a pond.

So far as Scats are concerned, you're better off with plastic plants. Scats are harbour-dwelling fish, so an aquarium with a rocky, 3-D backdrop of the type made by Juwel for example would look just the thing. Add a few big rocks in the foreground, perhaps some of those fake anchors and chains, and maybe even a few fake corals and seaweeds for colour. Silicone some oyster shells together to make an oyster reef. Instant Southeast Asian harbour!

Cheers, Neale

nmonks wrote:The short answer is no,
Cheers, Neale

Ah well, I thought that that might be the answer. I now have a challenge to come up with a hardscape that I will be happy with - all the harder since I haven't got an artistic bone in my body!

What do you feed your scat?
I feed mine lettuce as well as krill and occasionally frozen bloodworms. He still goes after the plants though.

If you feed him lettuce, go for the green stuff like romaine instead of iceberg, which is mostly water & non-nutritious.

Romaine is better for you as well. iceberg is useless
... spinach for scats?

I'm not sure about spinach. Might have too much iron. I was told not to feed it to my dog.

I feed mine flake mainly but a couple of times a week i'll give them "deep greens" like lettuce, watercress, rocket, cucumber, peas, spinach & brocolli.

Spinach & brocolli do have a lot of iron in them but if you don't give them it all the time then it should be ok.

I tried putting a lot of vegetables in there to see if they would stay off the plants but it doesn't work, it just means that they think they are at an all-you-can-eat buffet and you have to do an unscheduled water change

In case anybody else got very confused...
Rocket is another name for Arugula.

Jase wrote:In case anybody else got very confused...
Rocket is another name for Arugula.

They've probably given it that name so kids will eat it.

Do you want a plate of Arugula kids? nooooooooo!
Do you want a plate of Rocket? yyyyyeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhh!!