mystery of substrate on Madagascar lace leaves

[Paul]

Every morning when I get up, I find a small amount - just a few pebbles - of eco-complete substrate on top of the leaves of my Madagascar lace plant. The leaves are a couple of inches above the substrate. My question is, how does the substrate get on top of the leaves? I think the most like suspects are my pair of Firemouths - I know they like to root around in the substrate. Perhaps they agitate the substrate so vigorously that it is tossed up onto the leaves. I also have three Boesmani rainbowfish, but I don't they root in the substrate.

Any Sherlock Holmes out there who can solve the mystery?

[gingerinaustin]

Every Firemouth I've ever known has loved to play with gravel; they like scooping it up with their mouths and spewing it everywhere. You're probably just seeing the few pebbles that didn't fall back down to the bottom after their night games. The Secret Life of Fish...

[Paul]

Ginger,

I haven't observed this behavior, although I see the evidence of it. Do they do it at night?

[gingerinaustin]

How long have you had them? I had a friend who had Firemouths, there's a tank at a local Thai restaurant that has Firemouths, and there's a display tank at a LFS with Firemouths and they all seem to do this, frequently. I'm surprised you haven't see them at it during the day. I've read they do this to sift bits of food out of the gravel, like juruparis do.

[ILOVEBETTAS]

Yeah, it has to be the fish. firemouths and other cichlids are always messing with gravel.

[Paul]

I've had them for 6 months or so, and never seen them pick up gravel in their mouths. But I'm quite willing to believe they do it at night when I'm not around. Maybe they're just playing mind games with me.

[Mgamer20o0]

i watched them at the lfs its fun..... lol... and the whole gravel on one side of the tank.

[webbie]

sounds like u already figured it out genius :idea: