Plants in the Aquarium 3: Cover for Fish

As well as providing the operating surface for bacteria, production of oxygen and destroying toxic substances plants have one more important role to play in the aquarium. They provide cover and spawning areas for fish. Fish are not used to bare tanks. In the wild fish are surrounded by plants that provide cover from predators, block out light, provide places to spawn and places to rest. In a bare tank fish can lose colour, be stressed leading to illness and disease. Disease in a tank can spread extremely quickly and have high lethality rates if the fish are stressed out. Also the chance of fish spawning in a bare tank is next to nothing because they will be stressed and many fish lay there eggs in the leaves of plants. Lastly many fish come from partly blurred or muddy water and plants can give them a darker place to hide from the light. Beware though that the bright lights required to grow plants can stress some fish if there is no plants to shade them or hide under.