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What’s eating my amazon swords?

Sheepy90

Seedling
Joined
24 May 2020
Messages
20
Location
Nottingham
Afternoon guys.

I have noticed that my amazon swords seem to be getting eaten by something but not sure what.
I have a 125l tank which has been running for 6 years but has been cared for properly for the last 3 months.
I am running 2 T8 18 watt day-lite lights for 8 1/2 hours each day.
I’m injecting only a small amount of co2 with a Tropica 60 system(I know it’s too small for this tank but since using it for a week the results are amazing already just with the small system). And I’m using easycarbo too.
I’m dosing 2ml of profito and Ferro each day and there are Tropica nutrition capsules placed next to each amazon.
I have the juwel filter that came with the tank plus a fluval u2 running.
All parameters seem fine other than my KH which has spiked to 17 but my gh is at 15. PH is 8.3
Substrate is small gravel with tetra active substrate .

I have neon tetras, harlequin rasbora and mountain minnows. I’m guessing none of there will touch the plants.
I also have 3 Pakistani loach and 5 Amano shrimp is it likely to be one of these? Or could it be the tiny little snails that have got in the tank through plants?
Any ideas would be welcome.
Thanks Sean
 

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Last edited:
They look like the older leaves so it's probably just the amano shrimp doing a spot of cleaning up. The new growth looks ok so it is likely the older leaves were emersed grown ones and it's just adapting to life underwater.
 
Hi @Sheepy90

Please tell us about your tank, for example:

1 For how long has it been running?
2 What lighting do you have, how long is it on for, brightness setting?
3 Are you using CO2 injection? Or, liquid carbon, perhaps?
4 Which fertilizers are you using?
5 Which filter system/manufacturer are you using?
6 Have you measured water hardness (GH/KH) and/or pH?
7 What is your substrate material?

That'll do for starters!

BTW, welcome to UKAPS!

JPC :)
 
Thanks mort. I did wonder if it was just the older leaves but even some of the fresh growth has a few holes in them or the edges eaten.
Would you cut all the old growth out, I was reluctant to do it as would make the tank look bare.
 
Hi @Sheepy90

I must have had a 'senior moment' yesterday! Looking back over your original post, it seems like you'd already provided all/most of the information that I was asking about. Sorry about that.

JPC
 
Thanks mort. I did wonder if it was just the older leaves but even some of the fresh growth has a few holes in them or the edges eaten.
Would you cut all the old growth out, I was reluctant to do it as would make the tank look bare.

Removing the old leaves is your choice really. Lots of people would take them out so it looks cleaner and that would have the benefit of improving water flow around them.

If the new leaves have holes then that could be another problem. I see one leaf in the above with a couple of side splits and I think this is only physical damage from it tearing on its way up. Some of the other holes could be explained over enthusiastic amano shrimp mistaking the new soft growth for a salad but it's hard to say. Maybe it might be a good idea to clear one of the dead leaves and see if you can spot a pattern to the wholes that might indicate a deficiency (normally solved by some decent root taps as they are heavy root feeders) or munching culprit. Other than that I'd just give them some time as when they adapt their growth will increase massively.
 
Thank you so much for the suggestions mort 👍 really appreciate it since dosing co2 they have come on really well and I can see lots of new shoots coming through today. I think I’ll leave the old leaves for now let the Amanos do their work as they don’t seem interested in the fresh growth
 
Jaypeece I edited it to add all the info you asked me to add rather than adding a reply 👍
 
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