Amazon Sword Troubles

[cloaker]

Hi everyone,

I bought a large sword plant yesterday with mostly large green leaves and a few of them were different in colour, with a purpleish colour and dark veins. I think these are newer leaves, as there are tiny leaves similar in colour starting to grow from the main stem.

Today I wake up and find that only those leaves have been chewed up, with holes everywhere. Here's a pic


Why are only those leaves being eaten and who's the culprit? Stocking list:

Angels
Clown and bristlenose plecos
Peppered cories
Siamese Algae Eaters
Rummynose Tetras
Mystery Snails

I've never had problems with my other plants being eaten by these fish before. Why are only those purpleish leaves being eaten? How can I ensure this plant can grow without having all of its new leaves eaten?


Thanks!

[Mebbid]

Your sword is grown emersed i.e. out of water. It will take a few weeks for it to acclimate to being under water and switch to the proper leaves.



The big leaves on the right are what they look like when they are submerged.

New leaves will grow out of the center of the plants with the more outside leaves being older.

[cloaker]

Ah okay. Should I trim the chewed leaves? Anything I should do to help prevent more of it being eaten by something?

[Mebbid]

Nothing you can do. The leaves arent meant to bebunderwater and will all melt just like the bad leaves you alreadt have. Just keep trimming off the dead leaves.

Also, root tabs are necessary for this plant

[cloaker]

Thank you friend, I appreciate your help.

[Hooked on Fish]

Hi Cloaker,

I recon the clown is the culprit. Below is the damage caused by a L333 pleco. It also only seemed to eat the newer leaves. I've since replaced it with an albino bristle-nose and I haven't had a repeat of the problem.



As a suggestion, if there isn't a lot of algae to feed on then you could throw in some algae wafers or a slice of zucchini. Hopefully that will tempt them away from your plants.

[Mebbid]

Originally Posted by Hooked on Fish

Hi Cloaker,

I recon the clown is the culprit. Below is the damage caused by a L333 pleco. It also only seemed to eat the newer leaves. I've since replaced it with an albino bristle-nose and I haven't had a repeat of the problem.



As a suggestion, if there isn't a lot of algae to feed on then you could throw in some algae wafers or a slice of zucchini. Hopefully that will tempt them away from your plants.

The L333 is not an algae eater, if you weren't specifically feeding him then he was starving which is why you would see him on the plants... or anything really.

But again, much like the OPs sword yours is grown emersed. The leaves are doomed to melting away. If the holes were on amazon swords that had the proper leaf structure then that would be a whole different ball game.