# Hornwort becomes No-wort



## tenakoon (Aug 12, 2009)

I heard that horn worts were great plants with fish that like to feast on plants. Well tell that to my 2 goldfish and pleco, they shredded down my hornwort till only its stem is left! But oddly, the stuff that is slowly growing back isn't apealing the goldfish. Why did they eat it in the first place and not anymore?


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## gonathan85 (Sep 12, 2009)

they're full?


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## tenakoon (Aug 12, 2009)

full?


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

Who know why fish do anything?

Fish do not get full. They will eat as long as there is food. The fact that they are not eating could be a problem. Water changes should help or maybe they have learned that Hornwort is not good to eat. Hornwort was the only plant that my Goldfish would not eat.

Someone said that a UV light would kill Hornwort but I have not tried it yet.

Even a small piece that broke off would regenerate a new plant so it went from a very useful and beautiful plant to a nightmare. Without a means of getting rid of it the plant became a problem.


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Here is my theory. I know it is true for deer, and landscape plants. I do not know if it is true for aquatic plants. 

Some plants are distasteful to fish because they taste bad. I do not know if this is the way it is with hornwort.

When a plant grower is growing plants they want to grow the plants as fast as possible, move them out and grow a new crop. 

When plants grow so fast they do not build up the bad tasting chemicals in their leaves and stems. 

When the plants regrow in your tank they are probably growing slower, and building up enough of these chemicals that the fish no longer like the taste of the new growth.


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## tenakoon (Aug 12, 2009)

Thanks alot! 
One more question. I only have two hornort plants, with three fish. I've heard that it is best to have more plants than the number of fish if u are adding a DIY CO2 reactor. SO i though of using first Flourish Excel to get some new born hornworts. Then I'm going to switch to the reactor. When the tank is populated pretty well i will start using both the Flourish Excel and reactor. Is this a good idea or should I just use both Flourish Excel and DIY CO2 reactor from the begging becuase these are hornworts?


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## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

Counting Hornwort is not really the way to figure out how much you have. 

If you sort of loosely bunched it up and held it in your hands would it fill your hands? 
Or
What size tank do you have, and what % of the surface does the Hornwort cover?
Or
(this does not work so well with Hornwort, but a good way to measure rooted plants.)
When you look through the front of the tank, can you see the back of the tank?

If you do not have enough mass of plants then when you add fertilizer and carbon algae is likely to take advantage of the nutrients and grow really well.


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## Neverlander (Jan 4, 2010)

tenakoon said:


> I heard that horn worts were great plants with fish that like to feast on plants. Well tell that to my 2 goldfish and pleco, they shredded down my hornwort till only its stem is left! But oddly, the stuff that is slowly growing back isn't apealing the goldfish. Why did they eat it in the first place and not anymore?


Have you recently added the honwort to your tank? If so, the plant might have benn collected from tne nature. The plants such as hornworts would rotten as getting adapted to the new environment. The rotting would make the hornworts, that is normally not easy to be eaten by an fish (because it is rigid), food for goldfishes...


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## Tausendblatt (Sep 16, 2009)

My goldfish never touched the stuff, but my tinfoil barbs ate it to a stub within hours.


It is true, the number of "hornworts" isn't a good indicator as to how much there is, it is more accurate to say how many growing tips there are, or how many inches of stem, including side shoots. Any point where hornwort is cut, as long as the chunk is at least an inch long, can become a new plant. Hornwort is a great plant that I loved to have with goldfish. Bad thing is, I lost most of it when I had someone taking care of the tank. I found a piece recently, so it survived as a species.

If one says they can't get rid of it and it is a nuisance, they are wrong. How hard is it to see a chunk and pull it out? Really. It might grow a few inches every week or even an inch a day, but still... that isn't that bad. If you were referring to eliminating it from a pond or something, that would be actually hard.


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