Total plant annihilation

SpankyPlants

SpankyPlants

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Nov 27, 2004
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OK my tank just all of a sudden went from "pretty good" to "Twilight Zone." First my fish all traded jobs (the gouramis eat algae now, and the SAEs accept only flake food), then I had a huge algae bloom (brown algae... yuk), and then my plants just went FLOP. I'm suspecting snails, which means the clown loach is fired, but I can't see any. I sat in front of the tank for EVER trying to see the suckers, but they just aren't there. I have, however, seen tracks in the moisture on the glass above the waterline that look like the slug tracks back home. So I'm guessing snails, or slugs... are there aquarium slugs? The plants are getting destroyed, especially my lotus! It looks like something whipped it, or crunched up the leaves. They're just deteriorating before my eyes, and I can't find the culprit. :sad I don't think any of the fish are doing it, but I can't find any snails anywhere, and I don't want to just throw snail-killer in there willy-nilly. Can anyone help me? Thanks!
 
SpankyPlants,

I believe I might know who's the culprit. I had a very similar thing happen to me a couple of months ago.

I think that it's your clown loach. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that they love to eat certain kind of plants. Believe me, I had no snails in my tank at that time, so I couldn't figure out who was doing it until I heard the CLICKING. Clown loaches make this clicking sound when they eat. Before I had plants in my tank, I fed my loaches a boiled cucumber. They thoroughly enjoyed the veggie and they made several clicking sounds while they ate it.

When I finally decided to put live plants in my tank, I didn't notice anything strange at first. But after a while, I noticed that my Hygro was a little tattered, but I thought nothing of it. But as the days kept going by the plants kept getting worse and worse. I was going nuts trying to find the culprit. One night I was doing something in the kitchen when I suddenly heard a familiar sound. I looked at the tank and sure nuf, they were eating my plants and making the same sound they made whenever they ate cucumbers. They were enjoying it BIG TIME.

When I got rid of them, I got rid of the problem. It wasn't easy. I loved my loaches. But I had no other choice. :sad I traded them for more plants at Petland.

If I were you, I'd watch the loach, he may be the one hurting your plants.
HTH.

Lissette :)
 
I still gave my loaches some veggies, and they continued eating my plants. I thought that that would satisfy them, but it didn't.

You can give it a try. Some people have been successful. :)

Lissette
 
Spot? Eating the plants? Oohhh he's in so much trouble...

You know, I think you're right. Since the other clown loach died, Spot's been hanging with my cory cats, and they like to rummage along the plant leaves. I thought he was just being social, when in reality he was EATING MY PLANTS! I'm going to watch him extra close tonight and if he is indeed the destroyer of plants, he's going to the LFS and getting traded for some more kuhlii's.

Thanks so much for the reply!!! :bowing:
 
Your welcome. ;)

If he's skimming the plants a lot, oh boy.

Get REAL close to the glass and you'll see him taking little bites out of the leaves (if it's him). But you have to get really close to see it. He might do this at night when no one is looking, that's why I could never see them before, until they got bold that day and started doing it with the lights on.

Lissette
 
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I'm torn. Spot hangs out on the plants a lot... furtively darting from leaf to leaf, looking suspicious... it could very well be him. But I've also seen what appear to be snail tracks in the condensation above the water line. :mad: I hate snails!!! Either way, the loach is in trouble, because he was bought to eat snails in case a new plant brought some in.

I'm doing the snail test. I put a lettuce leaf in the tank, weighted it down with a rock, and tomorrow I will see if there are snails on it. If there are, I'll get another clown loach to help Spot. If there aren't, he had better find a really good hiding spot!

Are there any different loaches noted for snail-eating? Clowns were reccomended by everyone after my last infestation (which eventually ended up with me having to take all the fish out of the tank and snail-bomb the plants. Nothing died, but some of them took a beating. The snails all croaked, after three weeks!!!). I really don't want to have to do that again, especially since I got rid of my 29-gal and now I have nowhere to stick the fish... :( If the snails got up in numbers like last time, I might just trash the whole tank and start over... which would be, you know, a good time to correct any aquascaping mistakes I made the first time around... but would also be a huge, enormous, expensive, pain in the butt! Plus, I like my plants. :rolleyes:
 
I certainly hope that it's not Spot. I can tell that you are attached to him. I know the feeling. But if it is, you know what to do. If you read other threads, you'll see that not many people can keep clown loaches in planted tanks because they love snacking on the leaves and there are a few that don't (those are the lucky ones. I guess it depends on what type of plant too).

You have a good idea there regarding the lettuce. I've read that if you do that, the snails will come out to eat and then you can grab and dispose of them. But, for some reason, I doubt that, since I've always read that clown loaches LOVE to eat snails, and are very proficient at it, unless Spot loves the plants more than the snails (if it is Spot).

I wish you and Spot a lot of luck. Let us know what happens. ;)

Lissette
 
Well, there were no snails on the lettuce, which means Spot is the plant killer. :( You're right, I'm really attached to him. I'm going to try and feed him some cucumber and see if that fixes his plant habits. I also moved the lotus out of the tank, since that seems to be the plant that's getting beaten on the most, and I put it into my 10gal SE Asian swamp biotope. I know it's not very Asian but... my betta likes it. He was already sitting on one of the mangled leaves. Plus it adds a bit of color, even though it's all torn up. There are a couple of new leaves coming out, so hopefully it will start looking good soon.

What puzzles me, though, are the tracks in the condensation above the water line. I took some pics, but I still can't find my camera cord so I can't post them. They look like snail tracks you see on sidewalks in the morning (at least in Florida). I'm worried that there ARE some snails, but Spot is just keeping them in check, and in between snail snacks is feasting on plants. I think that's the case, because only the leaves of the plants are eaten. The snails that destroyed my last tank ate leaves AND stalks, and there are no nibblings on stalks. If this is the case, I'll just keep Spot, because IMHO, one aberrant clown loach is WAY better than a thousand soul-sucking snails.
 
I was hoping that you'd find at least one snail, but I had a funny feeling that would not be the case. Most likely it is Spot. Try the cucumber, but, again, there is no guarantee he'll be satisfied with that.

In my 20 gallon, I couldn't afford to feed them cucumbers every single day (the water got messy), so on those days that I couldn't feed them the veggie, they ate my plants. Perhaps if you feed him cucumbers everyday, you could save your plants and not feel bad about keeping Spot. He's lucky. :)

I love loaches. I still have my 2 Kuhli loaches, and they just love getting tangled on the stems and leaves. They are a delight to watch and have never harmed my plants. At least I can keep them.

As far as snail trails that you see in your tank, I wish I could help you out with that. After what you've been through, I can see why this worries you. Maybe when you post pictures of it someone else can help you.

HTH

Lissette
 
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