# invert detectives needed!



## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

There has been a murder in my tank! 
I woke up this morning and my Anacharis has been slaughtered and cannibalized like corn on the cob!

I had to trim a strand earlier in the week so I took the clipping and planted it in the hopes it would take. It was doing great until this morning. 

The suspects:
blue gourami ~ he likes to pick at the leaves of my dwarf baby tears but never eats the leaves and doesn't strip the stalk
red cherry shrimp ~ 20 or so 
The following Nerite snails: tiger, zebra, olive, bumble bee
1 mystery snail ~ I was assured he wouldn't bother plants
3 small cory cats.

The cory cats uprooted some of my microswords a while back but after I gave them a strong talking to they have been more considerate. 
The shrimp mostly hang out in my dwarf baby tears or my Ambulia
I haven't seen anything giving that particular stalk extra attention...

Adding crime scene photos. Who gets the death penalty? At the very least sentenced to the fish store where a 5 year old with a sponge bob squarepants fish tank buys it...


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

Umzz... I think this isn't solely due to 1 animal. I've never seen a fish only eat the bottom half, unless the bottom half was already doing not so well. In that case, I think the shrimps and snails will all eat dead decaying leaves. But this off course is only guessing. You could build a fence around 1 stem and one without to see whether it's doing bad, or being eaten


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## praline3001 (Dec 29, 2014)

Yo-han said:


> Umzz... I think this isn't solely due to 1 animal. I've never seen a fish only eat the bottom half, unless the bottom half was already doing not so well. In that case, I think the shrimps and snails will all eat dead decaying leaves. But this off course is only guessing. You could build a fence around 1 stem and one without to see whether it's doing bad, or being eaten


I did think of that but all of the rest is doing fine. I would think the other pieces would be looking rough if that was the case?
Also that particular piece was fine at lights out. Since it was newly planted I was keeping an eye on it to see if it was doing fine. At lights out all leaves were attached.

I am still a newb at planted tanks and making sure everything moves smoothly.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

Can you post a picture of your mystery snail? There are several species "hiding" under this name, the most common one is leaving plants alone unless it is really starved (what do you feed it?). However, there is another one which is less harmless.

I agree with Yo han that it is more likely a combination of decay and cleaning up by the animals. In any case _Corydoras_ and nerites can be removed from the list of suspects.


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## Badlands54 (Dec 31, 2012)

One of the snails I would say the mystery snail


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Yep, I vote with Yo-han, that the lower leaves were damaged somehow (even as you handled it, perhaps?) and the clean up crew did their job. 

-J


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