Someone is eating my amazon swords

[arlok]

Hi. I have a 125 gallon tank with young discus, black neons and thee yoyo loaches. It is a live planted tank with an assortment of about 7 varieties. Several months ago I noticed that snails? were eating many pants leaves and that is when I got the loaches. Since then I haven't seen any snails and all my plants are ok except the two amazon swords that have oblong holes in several of their leaves but are otherwise healthy and growing quickly.
Any ideas?

[CrazyAngels]

Have you checked your tank after lights are out?? sometimes sneaky snail will only come out in the dark, specially little ones. Best of luck

[sdrexler078]

Are they just nipped at or badly eaten. I noticed some of my discus will pick at my swords. But they'll just peck once then swim off and I've only seen the same 2 do that so maybe some of yours are too.

[dirtyplants]

Do you have any plecos? My ABBN will clean the surface so well that they leave the amazon leaves in places very thin and then the plant will deteriorate and from holes.

[pastry]

My discus will chew the heck out of some of my tiger lilly leaves. I kept wondering why some looked liked they had little bit marks around the edges but thought it was just the leaves getting old... until I saw several discus pull the leaves down and tear pieces off.

Also have seen my lemon tetras in the past chow down on some duckweed.

Never had anything touch an amazon sword but wouldn't be surprised.

[arlok]

Have you checked your tank after lights are out?? sometimes sneaky snail will only come out in the dark, specially little ones. Best of luck
Yes. I used to see them before adding the loaches but not now :(

[arlok]

I know what you mean but these are holes in the middle of the leaves-very bug like.

[arlok]

I was advised not to mix loaches with plecos. Is this not true?

[rbarn]

You might just have a nutrient deficiency. Potassium deficiency will cause small holes in the middle of the leaf that gradually get bigger

[arlok]

You might just have a nutrient deficiency. Potassium deficiency will cause small holes in the middle of the leaf that gradually get bigger

Thanks for your reply. I do use Seachem liquid potassium on a weekly basis. I was under the impression that potassium deficiencies showed signs like yellowing and browning with weak stems.
Do you know if swords need a lot of potassium?

[rbarn]

Thanks for your reply. I do use Seachem liquid potassium on a weekly basis. I was under the impression that potassium deficiencies showed signs like yellowing and browning with weak stems.
Do you know if swords need a lot of potassium?

Swords are heavy rooter feeders. Dosing the water column only does so much for them. They either need an ADA type enriched soil or root tab fertilizers, or both.

[arlok]

Swords are heavy rooter feeders. Dosing the water column only does so much for them. They either need an ADA type enriched soil or root tab fertilizers, or both.

I am also using the root plant tabs that Seachem makes.

[rbarn]

Are you doing an EI dosing regime ?
http://www.barrreport.com/forumdisplay.php/38-Estimative-Index

and you may just have something eating your plants ........ lol.

[Bobindenver]

I have had the same exact problem with the holes in swords in my 120 gal Discus tank. I am pretty sure it is not the Discus or snails since I had a potted sword in my last QT for a few weeks with them, and no holes. I do have a Panda Loach however. Its very similar to a YoYo. Plus I have some smaller loaches which are called miniature "chain loaches." I also have a very aggressive flying fox algae eater. It has to be one of them.

[DiscusAB]

Loach wont go after baby snail.
Most snail only eat dead leaf.

[arlok]

I have had the same exact problem with the holes in swords in my 120 gal Discus tank. I am pretty sure it is not the Discus or snails since I had a potted sword in my last QT for a few weeks with them, and no holes. I do have a Panda Loach however. Its very similar to a YoYo. Plus I have some smaller loaches which are called miniature "chain loaches." I also have a very aggressive flying fox algae eater. It has to be one of them.

Thanks for your reply. I noticed that the loaches were bothering my discus by competing for food at the bottom and they appeared to be trying to attach themselves to them. The discus would just move away but I decided to removed the loaches since I think they have had enough time to get rid of the snails. I have been thinking of getting 2 females and one male Calico Bristlenose Ancistrus because I have read that they are great at keeping the tank clean (especially algae) and they do not bother the discus at all. Now I just need to find a good source for them on Long Island, NY.
The holes in the sword plants have ceased as well.

[Tazalanche]

Loach wont go after baby snail. I disagree. The only reason I have 12 yo-yo loaches (botia lohachata) & 13 zebra loaches (botia striata) in any of our tanks is to control the pest snail population.

Granted, when the yo-yo loaches get to adult size, they get lazy & stop going after snails. When that happens, I just have our LFS sell them for me.


I was advised not to mix loaches with plecos. Is this not true?
Among our tanks (including non-discus tanks) we have the following:

5 butterfly plecos (Lithoxus sp. "butterfly" L052) in angel tanks
1 clown pleco (Peckoltia sp. vittatus L103) in endler tank
1 royal pleco (Panaque sp. nigrolineatus L191) in molly tank
3 blue eye lemon bristlenose (Ancistrus temmencki L144A) in molly tank
1 albino standard fin bristlenose (Ancistrus temminckii L144a) in endler tank
5 standard fin bristlenose (Ancistrus temminckii L144a) in discus tanks
2 longfin albino bristlenose (Ancistrus temminckii L144a) in discus tanks
3 longfin bristlenose (Ancistrus temminckii L144a) in discus tanks

Both types of loaches we have do fine with all of our plecos.