Plants and some bad fish

[SassyAngel111]

I have this posted in the General Discussion section and logansmomma thought I might get more help here.

It has been a while since I have posted but my problem is that I have a fish that is eating my plants and not sure which one, here is a list of fish and plants that I have:

3 Rosy Barb's
3 Praecox Rainbow's
4 Harlequin Rasboro's
2 Gold algae eater's
3 cory cats
5 Bumble bee goby's
4 ghost shrimp

Anubias nana
Cabomba
Ludwig
Sword
Java fern
Here are some pics of the plants

Any idea's on how to keep them from eating my plants?










Sorry thought I had some pics of the plants from just last weekend, since the ludwig had all of the leaves on it

 

[HN1]

My money would be on the barbs and/or bows as far as eating them. Are you sure the trouble you see isn't possibly caused by a deficiency somewhere?

 

[SassyAngel111]

HN1 if there was a deficiency of either iron or calcium or something else, since I am seeing parts of the plants floating from where they were pulled from the main plant and then with the ludwig I don't see any of the leaves floating. Then it is like with the cabomba they have actually pulled it out of the gravel and had eat the roots off. Would putting lettuce or seaweed on a clip for the barbs or bows help?

 

[severum mama]

If the fish eating the plants is the issue here, I think that the lettuce or seaweed on a clip would be a really good idea. At any rate, it's good for your fish and it can't hurt to try!

 

[SassyAngel111]

I guess I will try the seaweed and see if they dont leave my plants alone. if the they wil come back from the mauling

 

[JustOneMore20]

How much light do you have over your tank? The first pic looks like a plant that doesn't have enough light. That could cause the leaves to fall off the plant and can even cause holes in some larger leaves. 90g tanks are tall and if you don't have alot of light, that could be the problem. But its another thing if you don't see any leaves at all. Do the leaves fall off or are they gone completely? Not stuck to the filter intake?

Still, I have heard of Rainbows and Barbs both nipping at plants. Try the seaweed and see if they go for that.

 

[SassyAngel111]

The light system is a Tek T-5HO one bulb is a midday by giesemann, the other one is a life glow 8700k. no there is no leaves from the ludwig stuck to the filter intake orin the canister when we clean it.

How often should I add food for the plants and what is the best one?

 

[logansmomma1228]

this is a great article that I just got done reading, if you scroll down about halfway it talks about ferts and whatnot. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/36/1/So-You-Want-a-Planted-Aquarium-/Page1.html Sorry to hijack for a min but I have a question- can the bulbs for T5HO's be found easily? Or are they a PITA that you have to hunt down ?

 

[SassyAngel111]

logansmomma, the t5 bulbs are even avilable at petsmart or possibly even your local fs. While reading the link that you sent, it seems that my nitrate is to low (5ppm) and it needs to be around 15 but then the phosphate needs to be at (1ppm) not sure where this is at but will get a test kit today to find out. What I am confussed on is that this article states that if you are not injecting CO2 then you need water surface agitation (What I am confussed on is that we have been told that you don't want alot of surface agitation) so which is right? The article is great.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I am not too sure, as far as I have read it depends on how many plants you have. From what I understand if you have a lot of plants and fish you would need less surface agitation because it would gas out the co2 that the plants are making. If you have less plants than the surface agitation is needed for some reason. I could be wrong though, I am still learning about this. So somebody please correct me if I am... I also read somewhere that you could turn on an air stone at night so the fish have enough oxygen ....

 

[SassyAngel111]

Just bought test kits for PO4 and KH.

PO4 = 0
KH = which is the nutrafin brand it took 14 drops to get from blue to green/lime color
PH = 8 which I no is real high
NH = 0
no3 = 5.0
no2 = 0
so how would I figure the co2 with the ph and kh results?