Fish eat all my plants! Help!

Astro

Astro

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May 16, 2006
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I have a 14 gallon tank (2foot x 1foot x 1foot), tropical freshwater. At the moment there are 2 clown loach, 1 pleco, 4 glass catfish, 2 red neon tetras. The tank has a flourescent light that says it gives out good light for plants.

I have tried planting plants on 3 or 4 occaissions, sourcing them from various lfs, and different sorts of plants. I'm a newbie, and chose ones that looked nice, I don't know what they were. But, there have been grasslike ones, ones with big leaves, ones with small leaves, red ones green ones and varigated ones. I usually get 5 smallish plants.

The plants seem to grow happily, but over the course of a month they are stripped, taken to pieces and gone. (Red ones usually last 2 days)

Do fish always kill plants? Am I getting the wrong sort of plants?

Help or advice appreciated, thanks!
 
My bristlenose plecs and my clown loaches eat my plants too. They leave the grassy ones alone, but everything else I seem to get is fair game.

Lisa
 
The plants are probably getting eaten becuase they are dying. The fish you listed won't usually eat healthy plants. The problem with plants is 90% of the ones offered for sale require moderate to high light, and the "stock" lighting in most kits is woefully inadequate. Shame on those LFS for not asking more questions.

Lighting in aquariums can be measured in watts per gallon. Example: 10g with a 15w bulb has 1.5wpg of light. Most plants require around 2.5-3wpg. Try getting java fern, anubius, and a family of plants called crypts. These should do well under your light.

ps plants with red coloration usually require VERY high light.

Good luck
 
I bought a clump of plants with redish purple leaves and they were literally gone within 3 days...

Lisa
 
thanks Lisa - glad it's not just me! Mooman,I will try those plants next. The plants all look like they are thriving though (until they are gone!), the fish tend to chew through the stalks to release larger leaves, and then spend the next few days eating the floating leaf.
 
I think it is my plecs that are mostly to blame. My farlowellas are always nibbling, but I don't think it is them. I seem to be adding plants on a weekly basis. Thing is, I give them peas, zuchini and spinach. But they still eat my plants! :mad2:

Lisa
 
I bred farlowellas, always and only in planted tanks, and had no plant problems. Those tanks were swords and val. I know breed bristlenose in planted tanlks, mailng Vla and Anubias, again with no problems.

Clown loaches can leave V or Y-shaped bites when they get a snail on a tender leaf, but it certainly does no serious damage to the plant in my tanks.
 
oh no! a pleco in a small tank! it is'nt this one is it? if it is, you need to keep upgrading to larger tanks until you end up with a 280g, or you could tanke it back to the fish store. If it's not the one in the link, you need to identify it, post a pic of it on here or use the site I linked you to, it has many acurate species profiles and pics of every fish. here is a species profile for the common plec that there working on at roans site, and as it says, your probably undefeeding your pleco and it's eating the plants because of this. can't tell you anything about the plants though, and youve got a 2'(it will grow to that size or get stunted and die prematurely) problem or fish on your hands.
 
clown loach too will get to be a foot in length, although you've got a lot of time with them, they live about 20 years and I think it takes about that long for them to reach adult size.
 
The Pleco is bristle nose one, it is getting quite big - about 5 inches. The clown loaches are about 2 inches long. I will try to get a picture of the pleco if it would help, but he hides a lot!
 
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