Why are my plants doing this ?!

[FishEs2978]

So I’ve had these plants fkr about a month and they’ve just started to - I think it’s called melt anyway , I’ve been putting the liquid carbon in and some root tans how can I stop it ?

 

[itiwhetu]

Don't worry. their leaves will fall off, keep the stems and the new aquatic leaves will grow on them. Most aquatic plants are grown terrestrially and go through this process when placed in an aquarium.

 

[Colin_T]

Your bristlenose catfish is eating the leaves. It needs driftwood and plant matter in its diet. Increase the lighting times to encourage algae so the catfish grazes on that instead of the plants. You can have lights on for up to 16 hours per day but the fish and plants need 8 hours of dark.

Stop using the liquid carbon, it's not good for fish and there's plenty of carbon dioxide in the average aquairum.

 

[Essjay]

Liquid carbon contains glutaraldehyde, a powerful disinfectant. It can kill some plants and anything which can do that is not good for fish.

 

[FishEs2978]

Okay , my lights are on for 14 hours a day , I feed them cucumber and other veggies atleast weekly , they also have multiple pieces of bogwood is there any way to get them to stop eating the plants ?

 

[Byron]

Okay , my lights are on for 14 hours a day , I feed them cucumber and other veggies atleast weekly , they also have multiple pieces of bogwood is there any way to get them to stop eating the plants ?

No. Tough-leaf plants are sometimes ignored by loricariid fish that are herbivorous, but softer leaf plants usually get eaten. Java Fern so far as I know is never eaten by anything. Large sword plants, Echnodorus griesbachii, var. bleherae is a common sword, usually do well.

There is also a nutrient issue here, as @Essjay and others noted. Excel is a dangerous toxin, and frankly not going to help anyway.

The light I would not have on beyond 8 hours daily. There cannot possibly be sufficient nutrients to balance a longer duration, assuming you are not adding any (beyond the tabs, they're fine). What is the spectrum of the light?

 

[FishEs2978]

I don’t know about the light but I am adding seachem rootabs

 

[itiwhetu]

Why don't you just have fish poo feeding your plants and add nothing to the tank.

 

[Colin_T]

Okay , my lights are on for 14 hours a day , I feed them cucumber and other veggies at least weekly, they also have multiple pieces of bogwood is there any way to get them to stop eating the plants ?

Feed them every day.

Catfish are like any other fish, constantly on the look out for food, and they should be fed regularly.

Vegetarian fishes have a high metabolism and need food more often than predatory fishes. Feeding the fish every day will go a long way in stopping them eating the plants. Just put a slice of cucumber, pumpkin, zucchini, etc, in the tank at night and remove it in the morning.

If the fish comes out and feeds during the day, then feed it during the day and remove the uneaten food an hour or two after.