Blood On My Fake Plants?

[Durbkat]

I just got done feeding the fish in my long 20 gallon tank and noticed a fake plant that was in the back towards the output of the filter and noticed a small red stain on a small part of the plant. My theory is that when my pleco was climbing the output of the filter and sliding back down that maybe he cut himself while he was sliding down and bled on it. My other theory is that I noticed since I added new black tetras to the tank to make the stockings 4 long finned and 4 regular black tetras and the pleco I noticed that almost all the tetras fins have been nipped at (pecking order I believe to re establish who is the alpha fish) Could the "blood" be from the pleco or the tetras, oh and the pleco has no cuts or injurys on him that I can see on his body when he is on the front of the glass or when he is laying on the bottom.

 

[Luke_e]

Yea, it could well be blood. Some of the plastic plants are VERY sharp, even to human skin, so you can imagine what its like to a fish.
My snail once got caught on the plastic plants, so i removed it as it could of easily embedded into the snail.
I am against plastic plants, well at least ones with sharp pointy bits.

 

[morgan]

Hi, I used to have a mix of real and fake plants. I now have all real plants since I read on this forum that someone had a fish impale itself on a fake plant. Plus the fish can eat the real plants if they want / have to. They also help to give some oxygen to the water, though I don't know if it is a lot or not. One of your fish could have caught themselves on a fake plant. The only drawback with real plants is that pesky snails like them too!

 

[Durbkat]

Isn't the only way to get snails is if you buy the full grown ones from petshops? Couldn't you just get them as a bulb and let them grow from scratch? Also I don't think I have the right kind of lighting for real plants. Thanks for replying so fast guys.

 

[Luke_e]

Yea i bought my snail from a petshop.. not on a plastic plant, but it got caught on one of my plastic plants when i put it in.

 

[Fella]

I can't see how blood would attatch itself to something underwater. Are you sure it isn't brown algae?

 

[Durbkat]

Hold on let me look..........maybe but maybe it's just a bery bright brown algae it almost looks like blood. Thanks fella.

 

[morgan]

The pesky snails are the ones which have been bought in on real plants as eggs. I also have a Golden Apple Snail, which does not eat the plants as it is a Bridgesli. Real plants are very easy to grow. I just have an ordinary light tube which came with the tank (it was new). I don't do anything special. The lights are on for 2 hours in the morning and 6 hours in the evening. If you want a really superb display and difficult to grow plants you can go to a lot more trouble. Ordinary plants are easy, you just buy them as plants (not bulbs) shove them in the gravel and away you go! I just bought two a couple of weeks ago and they cost £1.60 each.

 

[ncjharris]

If you think one of your fish has injured itself, I would add melafix, just in case. Last thing you want is an infected wound you can't see.

 

[Durbkat]

Don't have melafix and my wallet is empty and is collecting dust. Like I said earlier it might as well be brown algae from a nearby window and the pleco might have missed it.

 

[Synirr]

Definitely just red/brown algae, there's no way you'd have enough blood in your tank to actually stain one of the plants without the water itself being red
I don't believe any species of plec eat red algae.

 

[Durbkat]

Oh I didn't know their was a such thing as red algae, and this pleco eats both brown and green algae. I was surprised when I found out because when I first got him all of my gravel, plants, and tank glass was covered in brown and green algae and he cleaned it up in a couple days.

 

[kat and james]

it definatly won't be blood.. blood disipates in water, and does not collect on a leaf. even if the water was red, you wouldn't see a pool of blood on any of the plants!!
it is probably just algae!

 

[StrontiumDog]

it definatly won't be blood.. blood disipates in water, and does not collect on a leaf. even if the water was red, you wouldn't see a pool of blood on any of the plants!!
it is probably just algae!

Ditto

Maybe its the colour on your fake plant?

 

[Durbkat]

No it can't be because the plant is totaly green and it didn't have red algae or blood on it when I got it.