# Angels or other plant eating culprits?



## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Something is eating my Marsilea and I am having a hard time tracking down the culprit:-x. Has anyone ever had experience with this??? I had originally thought it was the bristlenose pleco, but it may also be the two angelfish I have in there.

My primary list of suspects includes the 2 anglefish, a bristlenose pleco, a CAE, and the Syn.eupt. catfish. 

Other critters I have include ramshorn snails, 3 Gambusia guppies I can't catch (I removed the others that were there to get the tank started), 9 black mollies, 9 zebra danios and 5 cory cats.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

I'd put money on black mollies. My swordtails would eat plants. They kinda eat the algae then go overboard.


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## Avi (Apr 7, 2004)

You do have some fish in there that might be suspects, but I'm also going with the black mollies as the ones to watch.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Thanks Six and Avi; I'm beginning to see why most folks stick to very specific species in their planted tanks.


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## Avi (Apr 7, 2004)

Every time I've ever tried a "suspicious" species, they've proven true to form. I've found that variatus, which aren't know to be serious plant eaters, often do, while regular platies don't often threaten aquatic plants. But mollies are largely vegetarian even though they'll take other foods enthusiastically, that's why I stay away from them.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

I had apistos that ate my downoi. i would have never guessed that! LOL.


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## Avi (Apr 7, 2004)

LOL...are you sure that someone else did it but just blamed them??


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Funny that Apistos got a shout-out; I have been considering getting about 10 or so of them in 2 or 3 months when the tank is good and settled (I have a 125 gallon NPT). 

Do you think they might be a problem? Dang, there's a whole 'nother thread I guess. My plants are several Echinodurus (from amazon to tenellus), a couple different Hygro.s (bold, sunset, and guinea mostly), a couple Limno.wavy's that appeared out of nowhere, red lotus, Stauro. low grow and porto vehlo, a couple different Rotalas, Anubias sps., and, of course, lots and lots of Marsilea (along with some needle-leaf and regular java ferns, and I'm sure I'm leaving something out). Basically it's a heinz-57 mix of survival-of-the-fittest in there.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Hrmmm... well my first instinct was to say I wouldn't put that many apistos in a tank, regardless. I'm more of a behavior-oriented fish keeper. Buying 10 won't keep them from competing with eachother, and maybe some losing (ie dying) but if you can get a breeding "harem" going, that would be cool. I'm not sure if Apsitos even do that, but it would be cool to see if they will. 

I think the synodontis may be a bit much for apistos though. I think you'd be better off with a nice pair of Pelvicachromis. The common species is called "kribensis" but there are so many other species and location varieties you'll be sure to find one you like.

I've never had either apistos or pelvics eat plants. The apistos that did were a less commonly kept species (A. inirridae) and were being kept with a kida rare plant. It happens. Did kill off all the downoi tho! LOL.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Great info Six, I'll keep that in mind. My original fear of Kribs was that I had heard they liked more vegetation in their diet and I figured they'd tear the plants up. But looking around other thread I don't hear this being an issue, so maybe I'll head that direction. 

The Synodontis won't be in there by then though, so he'll be a non-issue. My wife loves him, but can't stand the way he sucks up fry and said he's got to go one way or another (though she's not the one trying to catch him in that tank without ripping the plants out of the substrate). Short of borrowing someone's pressurized CO2 for a day, I really have no idea how to get that dude out of there without tearing things up.


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

mudboots said:


> Great info Six, I'll keep that in mind. My original fear of Kribs was that I had heard they liked more vegetation in their diet and I figured they'd tear the plants up. But looking around other thread I don't hear this being an issue, so maybe I'll head that direction.
> 
> The Synodontis won't be in there by then though, so he'll be a non-issue. My wife loves him, but can't stand the way he sucks up fry and said he's got to go one way or another (though she's not the one trying to catch him in that tank without ripping the plants out of the substrate). Short of borrowing someone's pressurized CO2 for a day, I really have no idea how to get that dude out of there without tearing things up.


i had a synodontis eupterus and you are right, he/she will eat fry and small fish and hit plants hard...try a cave or something, when it gets confortable enough take the whole thing out, thats how i got mine i think (i had a few). is too bad they are so big and powerfull, because it looked awesome in a planted tank...

as far as the appistos go, i would do them instead of the kribs! well, i did them and currently have a group of 6 tripple red and one random rescue that has no id and a pair of something else i just got me last week. they are doing well all together in my 125, if they decide to breed i know i will have to take something out, but not just yet


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

ddavila06 said:


> i had a synodontis eupterus and you are right, he/she will eat fry and small fish and hit plants hard...try a cave or something, when it gets confortable enough take the whole thing out, thats how i got mine i think (i had a few). is too bad they are so big and powerfull, because it looked awesome in a planted tank...
> 
> as far as the appistos go, i would do them instead of the kribs! well, i did them and currently have a group of 6 tripple red and one random rescue that has no id and a pair of something else i just got me last week. they are doing well all together in my 125, if they decide to breed i know i will have to take something out, but not just yet


Yeah, they really are beautiful specimens. I'll try the cave for sure and see if the LFS will swap me for some food.

I'm glad to hear the apistos are doing well together, as I have been leaning toward trying a macmaster's species that are sold sort-of close by at invertzfactory. Not that I'd go pick them up, but there's enough folks in the area who've used them and have good things to say. Plus Melinda really like the sodalis cories thet have.


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## tranr (May 20, 2009)

Going back to the original topic of this thread, I think I've encountered angelfish eating plants before. I have several of them in a 55 gal planted tank, and they went after my Hygrophila difformis leaves. I think they nibbled on the leaves when they were young growths; by the time the leaves got bigger, the only parts remaining were the harder-to-eat regions. The only other fish in that tank include several cories and a pleco - neither of which show any signs of actually taking bites out of the leaves. The leaves looked as if they had been attacked by hungry caterpillars or tadpoles!


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Very interesting Tranr. Did your angels ever outgrow plant nibbling or is it just in their nature? I've noticed this on some young bolbitis leaves as well to the point that you can't even tell I have that plant unless I show you where the rhizomes are. I had actually fogotten I had them myself until I noticed them last night while removing some displaced moss, which is definitely the angels. They grab the strands of the moss and go nuts with it trying to get the goodies hidden within.


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## tranr (May 20, 2009)

mudboots said:


> Very interesting Tranr. Did your angels ever outgrow plant nibbling or is it just in their nature? I've noticed this on some young bolbitis leaves as well to the point that you can't even tell I have that plant unless I show you where the rhizomes are. I had actually fogotten I had them myself until I noticed them last night while removing some displaced moss, which is definitely the angels. They grab the strands of the moss and go nuts with it trying to get the goodies hidden within.


The plants in my angelfish tank aren't looking as chewed up these days. I've also given away a few of my angelfish to SFBAAPS members, since the two spawns that I had were starting to grow too large for me to comfortably fit them and the few adults in my tank. I am not certain that it is in their nature, but I know mine all have voracious appetites and go after absolutely everything. They've decimated the ramshorn snail population in their tank after the juvenile angelfish started attacking the snail jelly sac eggs stuck on the glass.


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