Plants for a pickerel tank

Well... I've ordered my pickerel and it will be here in a few days but my tank looks pretty sparse. I have a huge floating log that is growing "hairy mold" all over it and it blocks out most of my light. Its a great baby gambusia hiding place but im getting tired of it already. Anyways, i was wondering if south american frogbit and jungle vallisneria would be ok in a low-medium light tank with a pickerel. They seem like they would give some cover and security (I know they're not native but they do look cool). Heres the site i saw it on. http://freshwateraqu....com/index.html Seems like a pretty good price for 10 plants.

Also, does anyone know of any other kinds of vallisneria or frogbit that are natives? Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
DC

Well... I've ordered my pickerel and it will be here in a few days but my tank looks pretty sparse. I have a huge floating log that is growing "hairy mold" all over it and it blocks out most of my light. Its a great baby gambusia hiding place but im getting tired of it already. Anyways, i was wondering if south american frogbit and jungle vallisneria would be ok in a low-medium light tank with a pickerel. They seem like they would give some cover and security (I know they're not native but they do look cool). Heres the site i saw it on. http://freshwateraqu....com/index.html Seems like a pretty good price for 10 plants.

Also, does anyone know of any other kinds of vallisneria or frogbit that are natives? Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
DC

IIRC, 'jungle val' is a variety of the native V. americana; so is 'giant val'. There is a native frogbit- Limnobium spongiae.

Most pickerel that I have seen in the wild have been among elodea, myriophyllum, hornwort, and other 'frilly' submerged plants.

now I have only found them amongst exposed roots, but then again I have only gone collecting in the Wisconsin River, so I didn't look in the extremely weedy areas.

I would say get some nice driftwood and do some vals, that should make ANY fish extremely happy.

The frogbit would work great and if you can get the native one, I'd suggest it. I have also had good luck with floating water sprite, though you will need to keep that thinned out. Any of the floating plants will work great with low light.

We get pickerel out of the margins of vegetation, right next to the open water. We do get them back up in the veg if there is enough space. I have never really noticed a preference in type of plant other than that it is over their head.