Holes in my plants!

[andrejacobs81]

Hi,


Holes in Amazon Swords! by andrejacobs81, on Flickr

So my planted tank was doing fine for a couple of months and now recently I am seeing lots and lots of holes in the leaves of my plants! Mainly my amazon swords (think these were ecinodorus rosea).

Anybody have an idea what is causing this?

Here is my specs for the aquarium:
http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=18478

I am now trying EI dosing with the aquarium plant foods EI Starter kit and I have also added lots of Tetra Crypt tablets and the roots of the swords.

Thank you for any advice

 

[Ady34]

Looks like they've been eaten!
I noticed from reading your post in algae, you've rid yourself of most of the algae, by adding amongst others a Phantom plec and peppermint plec. Although i dont know the eating habits of either of these plecs, from looking at your plants i would suspect they eat amazon swords!
Hope thats helpful.
Ady.

 

[awtong]

Yep Ady is right. Your Blue Phantom has had them for lunch! My Blue Phantom can strip plants and veggies in minutes. I tend to keep hardy plants like crypts, anubias vallis and apongeton. Anything soft like Echinodorus will be eaten.

Andy

 

[andrejacobs81]

Haha funny enough I suspected that it might have been the ottos!
But it makes total sense that it is one of the plecos and most likely the blue phantom (he is seeming to be getting bigger). Thanks for the advice. I guess I will buy hardier plants and feed them more veggies.

 

[sussex_cichlids]

Hi andre

No Ottos are 100% Plants safe Ive done loads research over past few years in to finding the perfect fish for a planted tank and ottos ive got to rank as one of the most plant friendly fish you can buy they will sit on you plants and clean algae and detritus from them but will never eat the plant

Id agree with the others with it being the plecs there are few plant friendly plecs the common bristle nose and bulldog pleco there maybe few more i don't know about

Also it dead give away with the damage being centralized to the leaf and not from the edges you can also eliminate any other fish you may have like cichlids as they will eat from the edge an till it gone as were the plec looks like hes laid on the leaf and nibble a bit them move and nibble bit more and so on