The best fish for planted aquariums
All of them! Thanks for reading.
Okay, fine, I’ll explain a bit more. Planted aquariums are unquestionably the best way to keep fish, because not only are they far more beautiful but they keep the water much cleaner and give your fish lots of enrichment. But many people wonder what to fill their planted tanks with, and worry that the plants may hurt their fish or the fish may hurt their plants. Let’s dive into that.
Fish and Plants
Firstly, if you’re reading this, you’re probably planning a planted tank or you already have one. Plants are extremely beneficial because they’re they absorb nitrate, which is created as a result of the nitrogen cycle breaking down ammonia in your water. In a tank without plants, nitrates will build up freely until they can become toxic, unless they’re removed by a routine water change. Nitrates also promote algae growth, which eventually results in unplanted tanks being dirty, green, and requiring lots of maintenance.
Densely planting a tank completely solves this issue. Your plants absorb the nitrates, which prevents algae, and keeps you from needing to do constant maintenance. It also allows you to stock a lot more fish in your tank without having any worries about water quality!
Fish need enrichment. If you were trapped in a small room your whole life, you’d want something interesting in there too. Having leaves of various sizes and shapes gives your fish somewhere to swim through, hide in, and play in. It also gives fry and babies a place to hide from larger fish that might accidentally gulp them down.
How much can you stock in a planted tank?
Planted tanks allow you to stock a lot more than an unplanted tank. Within reason, of course.
Obviously, you should still consider tank size and stocking limits, generally you want to try to stick with fish about 1/10th of the size of your aquarium, like stick with maximum 1” long fish (fully grown) for a 10g tank, and no larger than 2” fish in 20 gallons, etc. You can have lots of small fish no problem, but never put a large fish in a small tank.
I don’t personally follow most stocking rules, I just fill my tanks with whatever seems reasonable. Use your common sense, and look at how many fish you have in your tank. Do they have space to swim? Are they bumping into each other? So long as your fish aren’t actually crowded, you should be totally fine, assuming your filtration can keep up.
After adding new stock to a tank, it’s a good idea to test the tank’s ammonia and nitrates a day after adding them. If you have any ammonia, you need to perform a water change and continue doing so until your tank catches up and is able to filter out the ammonia.
A 10 gallon tank of ours, completely filled with plants, that has probably 60+ cobra endlers in it. They’re thriving and we haven’t lost any despite the tank being obviously overstocked. This tank uses a double sponge filter with a pump to generate flow.
Other Stocking Considerations
Some fish require extreme parameters, such as very hot water, very high pH, very hard water, etc. Generally, you can still add plants to almost all of these conditions, but sometimes they won’t thrive. I find the best way to succeed is to simply add lots of different types of plants and see what grows the best.
Lighting is important for plants, and doesn’t really matter for fish. Keep your light as bright as possible.
Copper is toxic to invertebrates such as shrimp and snails, and lots of fertilizers have trace amounts of copper. Generally it isn’t enough to harm them, but if you’re worried about it you can get copper-free ferts like Thrive S.
Plants thrive the best with lots of flow, especially at the surface. If you stock fish that have long fins or prefer low flow, just make sure there’s a dead spot in your tank, but still try to keep good flow.
If CO2 is properly regulated, it won’t harm any of your fish.
The best fish for planted tanks
I personally love stocking smaller fish in planted tanks to watch them swim through the plants, but practically any fish are great to add. Here are some great options, broken up into categories.
Note here that this list is in no way complete and obviously there are way more fish available than I list in this list. The fact is, so long as the fish doesn’t eat plants, you should be totally fine adding it into your tank. These are just fish I’ve kept and recommend.
Nano Fish
For any tank 5g or larger. Anything smaller than 5g should only have shrimp.
Endlers - They reproduce quickly and look beautiful.
Guppies - There are loads of unique guppies to add a nice touch to your tank.
Any Tetras - There are hundreds of types of Tetras. They’re all beautiful and great for planted tanks.
Danios - Simple and beautiful fish available almost anywhere.
Corydoras - They’re super cute and fun bottom feeders.
Shelldwellers - Shelldwellers like Multies live in big shells. They’re super cute, easy to keep, and fun to watch.
Rasboras - Galaxy Rasboras, Emerald Rasboras, and Chili/Phoenix Rasboras are beautiful, tiny, and interesting.
Nano Rainbowfish - I LOVE the Psuedomugil Rainbowfish. The smaller rainbowfish are absolutely beautiful.
Pea Puffers - They’re SO cute and fun to keep, but need frozen bloodworms and snails to eat.
Kuhli Loaches - Adorable eel-like dudes who live in the substrate. They’re fun, but you might not see them in dense tanks.
Bettas - Bettas CAN be kept with other fish (usually, unless they’re dicks). They’re great centerpiece fish!
Mollies and Platies - Simple to keep fish that readily breed and come in lots of colors and shapes.
Swordtails - They’re like cooler Mollies, with more interesting colors and long pointy tails.
Barbs - While they can nip the fins of slow moving fish, they’re gorgeous and move quickly. Avoid Tinfoil barbs.
Shrimp! - Neocaridina and Caridina shrimp are some of the best planted tank occupants, as they have effectively zero bioload, reproduce quickly, look beautiful, and eat algae. They’re fragile, though, and don’t like water changes or parameter changes.
Medium-Sized Fish
For tanks 20g or larger, generally.
Giant Danios - They’re shockingly cheap and super beautiful. Really fun schooling fish, especially for larger tanks.
Gouramis - Beautiful display fish that love to be in the middle of everything.
Apistogrammas - Dwarf cichlids that are extremely colorful and beautiful.
Angelfish - Beautiful, elegant cichlids that get along with almost anything.
Rainbowfish - Larger rainbowfish are unbeliveably pretty and look incredible in planted tanks.
Rams - Dwarf cichlids with beautiful colors and interesting behavior.
Electric Blue Acara - One of my favorite fish. They get a bit larger but their colors are incredible.
Parrot Cichlid - Super beautiful colors and very interactive fish.
Large fish
For 60g-ish or larger.
Discus - Perfect large planted tank fish. They’re gorgeous, don’t hurt plants, and love to hide in them.
Peacock Cichlids - While they might rearrange the substrate and dig up a few plants, once the plants root they’re totally fine.
African Cichlids - The vast majority of African cichlids may push around substrate and dig, but won’t uproot rooted plants.
Arrowanas - I’ve never kept one, but apparently they’re perfect for large planted tanks.
Knife Fish - SUPER cool and unique looking fish that won’t hurt your plants.
Eels - Fire Eels or other sorts of eels love hiding in plants and won’t hurt them.
Sharks - Bala and Rainbow sharks grow very large after a few years, but they’re perfect mates for planted tanks.
Clown Loaches - They’re super cool bottom feeders that grow huge but look awesome.
Algae Eaters
I love stocking at least one or two good algae eaters in each of my tanks. They help keep the glass clean, leaves clean, and they help stir up gunk on the bottom so the filter can pick it up.
Otocinclus Catfish - They’re super small algae eaters great for nano tanks, but they can be a bit fragile.
Bristlenose Catfish - The perfect algae eater for practically any tank 10g or larger. Hardy, cool looking, and great for algae control. They also don’t grow too huge so they’re okay for smaller tanks.
Siamese Algae Eater - My personal favorite algae eater. They grow a bit larger but they ravenously devour algae and they’re super active.
Nerite Snails - I’m personally not a huge fan of nerite snails since I find them pretty boring. Nonetheless, they’re great algae control for smaller tanks.
Amano Shrimp - Get a handful of amano shrimp and your algae problems will be gone. A swarm of amanos will control algae better than anything else you can possibly get.
What fish not to get
Most importantly, avoid getting any fish well-known for eating plants. There simply isn’t any way around it- if a fish eats plants, it won’t do well in a planted tank. Plants that get nibbled on will grow much worse and have much more algae, and eventually you’ll find your planted tank full of brown plants and some very full fish.
Diggers
You don’t necessarily need to avoid digging fish. This includes a lot of cichlids, especially African cichlids. These fish don’t actually eat plants, but they like to dig in the substrate or push it around, which will cause them to uproot plants. Contrary to popular belief, you can absolutely keep plants in a tank with these fish.
There are three tricks to keeping plants with digging fish.
The first is to have really deep substrate. Deep substrate gives your plants more room to be buried, which makes them harder to dig up and allows them to have deeper roots.
The next trick is to use pea gravel underneath your top substrate. Pea gravel is super cheap, and is generally too large for fish to fit in their mouths or push around. I make the bottom inch or two of my substrate a mix of pea gravel and aquasoil, then top it all with another inch of sand.
Finally, and most importantly, plant your tank a week or more before adding the fish. This gives your plants plenty of time to root in and establish themselves, so by the time you add fish the plant’s roots are deep and wide enough that they won’t be able to uproot them.
Plant Eaters
Some fish are notorious plant-eaters. You should avoid these in your planted tanks. If you do want plants in a tank with these fish, consider exclusively stocking very thick, hardy plants such as Anubias, Ammania Capitellata, Staurogyne Bihar, Vallisneria, or Hygrophilia Corymbosa. These plants have thick stems and leaves that are more resistant to nibbling.
Some fish to avoid include:
Oscars
Goldfish
Silver Dollars
Turtles
Tinfoil Barbs
Most Pufferfish (Other than the smallest ones)
Chinese Algae Eaters (Often confused with Siamese Algae Eaters)
Most “Monster” fish
Giant Plecos (They generate tons of waste)
