Help!!! My plants are being destroyed...

[nero6370]

As you can see from the pics, my plants are in rough shape. That little nub used to be a 14" wisteria. My amazon sword has been chewed up, as well as my two red melons which used to be full and wide with nice broad leaves. The possible culprits are: 2 crays, 3 plecos (common, choc albino, and a royal), a jag, a p bass, a rck ( all little guys). I am leaning towards the crays as the perps but I could be wrong. I just bought 2 luteas to try them out...Any ideas out there as far as what the best plants for my particular fish are? Thanks Tom

 

[WyldFya]

First question, what are you feeding the plecs, and the crays? Second question, what is your setup? Third question, do you use ferts/co2? Fourth question how long have the plants been in the tank, and the tank setup?

 

[nero6370]

O.K. answers to those ?'s- I feed sinking Hikari algae wafers to the plecos, which the crays will also eat, plus they will eat the bloodworms and dead guppies left over from feeding the other fish. I do not use any fertilizer or co2. The tank is 75 gallons with a sand substrate; I use a ac 110 plus a wet/dry which gets about 250-300 gph. I'll admit keeping plants is not something I am practiced at; but I will not put fake plants in any of my tanks. BTW, can you tell me what type of plant is that long thin one in my 180? It seems very hardy and none of the fish mess with them. Also, the red melons in my 180 are small compared to the ones in the 75, so you can get a scope of the damage done to them. Thanks for the advice, Tom

 

[Algaegrower]

It's probably the common plec, i used to have one and it would eat any plant that i put in the tank. If you want plants in your best bet would be an anubias species.

as for the stem plant it looks like;
EGERIA/ELODEA DENSA
Size 30cm
Origin S.USA
Type Background
Temp 50-80
Light Required Below Average Fluorescent
A well known oxygenator sold all over as goldfish weed, hardy & easy to propagate

but i may be wrong

 

[WyldFya]

Based on the damage it looks like the plants are just melting from being submerged. The crays don't cause that kind of damage. Also, the plecos would do a different type of damage to the plants.

 

[mgamer20o0]

what lighting do you have over the tank and how much?

 

[nero6370]

I have a single 40 watt T-12 labeled for plants and aquariums. It's a Phillips brand fluorescent bulb.

 

[BIGgourami]

well the cray definately did that to the first pic.
i had som in my tank and they ate the plant just like it's seen in the picture.

 

[AnDr3w]

I took my common out of my tank on monday because he ate 5 plants.

 

[mgamer20o0]

I have a single 40 watt T-12 labeled for plants and aquariums. It's a Phillips brand fluorescent bulb.

your going to need some more lights if i read everything right. 40 watts over a 75 gal tank. if you really want plants check out ahsupply.com they have great lighting kits.