Lifeoffroad
Aquarium Advice FINatic
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Messages
- 526
My fish are eating my plants. Is this just part of life or should I stop growing them?
bettaowner said:What kind of fish. That's an anubias. Real hard to destroy.
bettaowner said:What kind of gourami. Could be the rainbows. They have narrow mouths. Might also be snails.
Rivercats said:Rainbows can be plant nibblers but they are commonly kept in planted tanks. My guess is the gold gourami, they are everything nibblers, including plants. What is odd is that anubia's are generally not considered edible by most fish (the leaves are thick and rubbery). What other types of plants do you have and are you noticing any grazing on them? Reason I'm asking is if it is only the anubia, the holes could actually be from a nutrient deficiency. Do you use fertilizers in your tank? Another thing is if you want a planted tank you need to research the fish you want to keep in it. There are alot of fish that nibble on plants. I have angelfish the love to nibble on new growth on my dwarf baby's tears. Don't give up! Clown loaches are also known plant eaters. I have a heavily planted tank but keep yo-yo loaches and haven't had any trouble BUT I feed heated, shelled, smashed peas at least 2 times a week. My loaches LOVE their peas and it satisfies their need for "green" food. Some loaches are known to just put holes in plant leaves but not actually eat them. So basically you have a tank of could be culprits. My suggestion is start offering a food that contains veggie matter, feed sinking algae wafers, and offer pea's a couple times a week. By giving them green foods they might decide to leave the plants alone. It's worth a shot IMO.
Lifeoffroad said:See the one on the left is the one that they just rip the leaves off
tropicalmackdaddy said:The one one the far right is a crypt.
It is odd that they eat the tougher plants, and not the elodia......
Rivercats said:The Pleco could be doing it but if they want to plant graze it is usually on large soft leaves like Amazon sword leaves. Mine will occassionally get on a Sword leaf and rasp, they don't put holes in it, they rasp it down to where an area almost looks transparent. Do you know what kind of snails you have? If they are MTS's then it's not them. If you have some common pond snails they could be but honestly not on an anubia. And the loaches would have a field day eating pond snails as they have thinner shells that are easy for loaches to break into and suck them out.
As for lighting you dont want to use atinic or anything over a 10K. Plants can't utilize that high blue light but I'm pretty sure algae can. If you have a 10K and a 6700K then you light shouldn't be that yellow. I have 3 10K Metal halides, 2 T5 Rosette bulbs, and 2 T5 6700K bulbs. The light isn't yellow due to the 10K's. Do you have any tannins in your water that might be giving you that yellow look?
Rivercats said:10K bulbs are the highest blue color level you should go in a planted tank. And let me tell you when those 3 10K metal halides kick on the tank doesn't have any yellow cast. But when just the T5's are on the tank looks more yellow/green "but" I think that has alot to do with all the green plants. Last week I took out 3 sections of "green" plants and got in plants that are all in the pink-red-orange-yellow color range. Once they fill in I think that will change the color appearance of the tank when only the T5's are on. I already had some red-pink plants but very little compared to green ones. I think now I will be half green and half in the colors above. Out of my 10 angels I have one Platinum Blue and when he gets under that rosette bulb it really makes him look cool, almost a violet blue hue. The rosette bulb is a very dull light but it brings out the red tones in my crypts (which are all in the front of the tank). Mine lights from front to back go: T5 rosettes, then 10K metal halides, then 6700K T5's. If you have a blue atinic or a 50/50 your plants aren't going to grow as well, they can't utlize the blue light above 10K. I'd stick with your 10K bulb/s and try to balance it out with one of the more red bulbs.
It's taken some time but my three yo-yo loaches have just about wiped out the pond snails. I rarely see any now days. Just give them time.