My Plants Are Being Eaten!

[Keithbaxter]

I have a RIO180 with a lovely slate stack at one end and a selection of plants at the other.

The plants over the last few days have got stringy patches and are clearly being nibbled as far as i know there is only one tiny snail and i havent seen it in a while so could be dead.

The fish in the tank are:
3 glow lites
8 guppies 4 f 4 m (3 pregnant!)
2 loaches
4 corydory things

Im not fussed if they are eating the plants just would like to know who and if for what reason.

I cant get a picture to save on my website as the ftp session keeps crashing but i will endeavour to get a pic up soon.

 

[Colin_T]

It depends on the snail, if it is a Malaysian Livebearing or trumpet snail there could be hundreds in the tank. You just don't see them during the day because they live in the gravel. Then they come out at night and eat everything. However, I would say it is the loaches.

Glo light tetras are a schooling fish and naturally occur in groups consisting of thousands of individuals. In an aquarium they should be kept in groups of 6 or more, preferably 10 or more

 

[Keithbaxter]

Ive just caught my guppies eating the plants. The snail has just been added and its tiny ill keep an eye on them though.

Im going to add some veg to my tank how do people do it?

Im thinking of a tangerine net o something weighted down.

 

[Colin_T]

Most people just drop a bit of pumpkin, zucchini, etc into the tank and it sinks. Some people feed it raw and others blanch (put in boiling water for a moment) it first. You can also buy suction cups with clips on. These are sold by most marine aquarium shops and are used to hold spinach or kelp in place so tangs and marine angelfish can graze on it. Other people just use a rubber band and a small rock to hold the food down.

 

[Keithbaxter]

Do i have to beware of it and remove it after so long?

I would have never thought about putting food in the tank please let me know as i dont wanna ruin the water for no reason.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Opinions vary on the length of time...12 hours would be the max I'd leave food in there for. The warm temps of tanks allow things to start decomposing rather rapidly, and if you leave it in too long you'll end up with a mushy mess that can foul the water.

 

[Mr Bliss]

I occasionally leave a small piece of blanched carrot or sweet potato for my bristlenose overnight. I stick a small stainless fork through the vegetable to help anchor it in place. No problems, but once I forgot the veggie in there for the entire following day, which immediately resulted in cloudy water, so I'd agree with the ~12h maximum.

 

[Keithbaxter]

Awesome, they seem to be doing the most damage in the daytime so ill drop something in before i go to work and remove it after.

I reckon they are just getting hungry like us all around the late afternoon between lunch and dinnner

Thanks for the heads up,

Ive just been told by Mr Bliss that the plants are infact house plants anyway "the one just left of the rock is a Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum). The others are all a variety of "Lucky bamboo" (Dracaena sanderiana). These two are probably the most common fake aquatic plants as they'll survive a good while underwater before rotting away. An additional problem with the Dracaena is that it's somewhat poisonous to any fish that decides to nibble on it."

So a heads up to anyone like me who doesnt do the research and just goes for the "look your after".

 

[Syphoniera]

I know the mystery of the rotting underwater house plants has been solved, but just thought I'd mention; guppies do tend to nibble tiny 'critters' off plants, but I've never heard of any actually nibbling plants per se.

Just hate to see the innocent wrongly accused, lol.

And I've never yet managed to get hold of any Malasian Trumpet Snails, but I do know that they're highly recommended for, and wherever possible added to, heavily planted Walstad tanks, so probably don't pose much if any danger to plants...???

Although even Ramshorn snails will eat diseased/rotting bits out of otherwise healthy leaves...

(Join the defence team in fighting snail smears today!)

 

[skimmy290]

i've kept loaches and mine liked to munch on plants, not so much java ferns and such but they loved any type of sword plant

 

[Corleone]

I know the mystery of the rotting underwater house plants has been solved, but just thought I'd mention; guppies do tend to nibble tiny 'critters' off plants, but I've never heard of any actually nibbling plants per se.

Just hate to see the innocent wrongly accused, lol.

And I've never yet managed to get hold of any Malasian Trumpet Snails, but I do know that they're highly recommended for, and wherever possible added to, heavily planted Walstad tanks, so probably don't pose much if any danger to plants...???

Although even Ramshorn snails will eat diseased/rotting bits out of otherwise healthy leaves...

(Join the defence team in fighting snail smears today!)

Considering guppies, I wouldn't put anything past them. They've got black holes in their bellies.

MTS rarely leave the substrate - they're entirely safe with plants. I'm still not entirely convinced mine are getting food, but they're obviously living on something. My ramshorns come out in force every time I try to add a temple plant and carve it up, but leave everything else alone.