plants for security

I added some plants to my 20H, for the serpae tetras. They've been looking a bit stressed- many of them pale, and they dash in a panic to the back of the tank when anyone walks by. Earlier in the week I planted some of the hornwort stems that were floating. They're short and pale with very fine needles- I didn't think it would give the fish much cover at all- but I immediately saw their behavior improve, they seemed a bit more confident- not fleeing quite as drastically. So then I trimmed all the rotala rotundifolia from my tenner (it's not doing so great in there) and planted it in here among the hornworts (which I know won't root- it's temporary).

The crypts in here are regrowing nicely- even though I haven't dosed ferts at all (holding back on that since I haven't added a light over this tank)- but they all lean towards the window.

The crypt balansae I planted in a corner is growing back, too. (It's the one plant in this tank I'll miss if I tear it down eventually).

Yesterday I picked up a few more plants at the pet store. Wisteria in the other corner now nicely hides the filter. Can see it had already started converting to submersed growth- the leaves on top have simple margins, like those on the wisteria in my betta tank.

Shrimps are already crawling all over it.

This is a plant I haven't tried before- ludwigia palustris. The label says temp range down to 60° so I planted a few stems in my paradise fish tank to try out.

In the back a few stems of hygro. I don't know what variety- the label unhelpfully just said 'hygrophilia species'. I'm curious if this is exactly the same plant I was confused on for so long and eventually ended up calling ludwigia repens var arcuata- so when a few pieces of bare stem broke off these, I shoved them under the substrate in Lady's side of the 33, by the 'ludwigia' thicket, to see if they grow out the same or not.

The fishes definitely feel more at ease now there's a good amount of plants. They still move away if I walk by the tank- but no longer panicky like they're going to dash themselves against the tank walls. They hang out in the open area more often, and I've even seen some sparring behavior among them- not mean nipping but showing off to each other.

They still have lovely, rich copper and liver colors- especially since I began feeding them the frozen foods. I feel bad that so many have bitten dorsal fins. Especially the ones I named Dot, Smudge and Broad. They seem to get the brunt of it at feeding time. Heirarchy has been rearranged- Diamond is no longer top fish. Ziggy and Truck seem to be head of the pecking order, as far as I can tell.

Aqadvisor tells me I'm totally fine with fish numbers in here, but their constant squabbling makes me think they're too crowded. I hope as the plants get thicker they'll feel more at ease. It feels kind of like stepping backwards- using hornwort as planted stems and having bright serpae colors in here gives me a constant reminder of when this tank was first set up for Fabio and the initial trio of serpae tetras I had . . . .