I think my fish are eating my plants

Blizzanj

Blizzanj

AC Members
Feb 7, 2009
36
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Nebraska~ at the moment
So I have noticed that everyday when I wake up and turn the light on my 10g it seems as though there are more and more holes in my Blue Bell plants. I have 2 dwarf gouramis and 4 neon tetras and 1 clown pleco. Do you think it's because they need to be fed more than once a day? If I feed them more will they stop chewing my plants to pieces or do you think it's something else? I'll post a pic of my plants here in a second. What can I do to stop this?
~Angela
 
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Sorry about the crappy photo, I had to take it with my phone because my camera needs to be charged, at least you can get a good idea as to what I am talking about
 
looks like your plant is "melting." give it more time. it may recover and go on to flourish in your tank.

what is your lighting and water change shcedule?
 
water change is once a week, lighting is flourescent on at 8am off at 6pm
 
what is the wattage? if you have a high light plant, and you have say a 15 watt bulb in your light fixture, your plant is just going to continue to dissintegrate. you may need to go with compact flourscent bulbs in your ten gallon hood (you can pick them up from walmart and they work wonderfully well). the only other thing i can think of is try to find out what the scientific name of the plant is. i tried a quick google search for blue bell under aquatic plants and there is no info. you may have been sold a terrestrial plant as an aquatic plant (this is very common and it irks me that aquarium places still do this) and it may never grow.

if any of the plant gurus would like to chime in, it would be appreciated.

best bet is to check your lights, then wait and see
 
ya I was just going to give the scientific name because I coudn't find anything about it either. Here it is~
Hygrophilia Augustifolia

I looked at the hood, it says it's a 15w florescent bulb
 
I didn't realize this was as plant issue, I would have put in in the plant section. I appreciate you helping me :) thank you very much
 
Looks very much like Pleco damage to me. That is not 'melting.' If that is a non-aquatic plant, go ahead and replace it with something more suitable and be sure to feed your Pleco before lights-out.
 
I've seen it first hand with Plecos damaging amazon sword leaves. Holes from nutrient deficiencies don't show up over night or that quickly (especially to that extent). The Pleco may not be getting enough to eat. What are you feeding it and how often? Is there any driftwood in the tank for the Pleco to 'nibble' on, as well?
 
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