What Is Eating My Plants?

[ariadne]

Hi guys,

I have a planted tank with two angels, 3 gouramis (pearl, opaline and flame dwarf) and a bristlenose catfish. I introduced the two gouramis at approximately the same time as two new plants, one a lily, the other some kind of grass. Within a week the grass was stripped and now nothing is left except for the roots. I had plants before the grass, and no problems except that one of the leafy ones has a few brown leaves and holes. A couple of weeks back I spotted a small snail like creature in the tank but haven't seen it since.

The question: Is it my gourami's, or my catfish who ate the grass, or is it likely to be a snail?

Thanks.

 

[three-fingers]

It's more likely to be the angelfish and gouramis than anything else, but what is your lighting, what nutrients are you providing and what type of plants are we talking about? From the sounds of it, the plants weren't growing and this allowed the fish to rip them apart. My fish love taking advantage of any struggling plant .

 

[Yazan]

Prob your fish.

 

[ariadne]

It's more likely to be the angelfish and gouramis than anything else, but what is your lighting, what nutrients are you providing and what type of plants are we talking about? From the sounds of it, the plants weren't growing and this allowed the fish to rip them apart. My fish love taking advantage of any struggling plant .

Um...My lighting is on about 8-9 hours a day, maybe more. I don't know what type it is...except a fluro bulb. I don't put anything else in. I have only had the tank about 2 months.

I also don't know what type of plants I have. A big leafy one that gets spots is perhaps an Amazon sword.

The grass looked happy until the fish ate it. I thought gourami's didn't eat plants >.<

 

[SuperColey1]

If they are spots underneath the leaves then it is a Java fern.

They get spots which are spores and baby Java Ferns grow from them.

andy

 

[ariadne]

If they are spots underneath the leaves then it is a Java fern.

They get spots which are spores and baby Java Ferns grow from them.

andy

Ah, not those kinda of spots. Big brown ones, with holes in and sometimes the whole leaf dies.

 

[SuperColey1]

Is possibly a Potassium or Iron defficiency which is part of our EI regime of dosing (Potassium as a macro and Iron in the trace elements)

Andy