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Any ideas on the cause?

A

Andrew Lindsay

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11 Sep 2018
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55
Location
East Midlands
These leaves look like they are being nibbled. Other than tetras and a couple of rosy barbs all I have is 3 Octos and 5 pygmy corys. Never actually seen the fish doing any nibbling but what else could it be? (doesn't occur on all crypto leaves) Thanks.
 

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Underwater ants.

Really odd. Even bladder snails would not do this unless the leaves were already dead, and I don't think the Otos fit the bill. Just wondering though, do you feed them zucchini or something, or are they on algae alone?
 
Jorge O'Reilly said:
Underwater ants.

Really odd. Even bladder snails would not do this unless the leaves were already dead, and I don't think the Otos fit the bill. Just wondering though, do you feed them zucchini or something, or are they on algae alone?
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The Octos (only 3 in the tank) are fed the same tetramin, micro pellets and frozen live food as their mates. There is algae for them to graze also. Never witnessed them munching plants; during the day anyway.


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Andrew Lindsay said:
Oops, I should have said Cherry barbs, not Rosy barbs (if it makes any difference)


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I can’t imagine cherry barbs doing that. So we can rule the fish out then. If it was ottos it would look like a fish has gone at the leaves with sand paper. Plecs do not cause damage like that.

More than likely crypt melt. You seem to have some healthy new growth coming through already so I wouldn’t worry too much at this stage.
 
Not sure what could have caused that. Really looks like something has been munching on them. Doesn’t look like any melt I’ve ever seen.

If there isn’t any other possible culprit I’d have to guess the Cherry barbs have developed a taste for your plants. From what I can gather it’s not particularly common but they will sometimes eat soft leaved plants.
 
Conort2 said:
More than likely crypt melt. You seem to have some healthy new growth coming through already so I wouldn’t worry too much at this stage.
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You might be right. Personally, I've never seen crypts melt in that way... with both ragged and yellowing leaves... I've seen a lot of crypts melts over the years and never noticed them going through a phase where they would yellow up like that and then wither. Its usually just straight from being nicely green to withering and it would usually happen quite fast. The good news is that they would usually bounce back.

My bet is that it is partially predatorial damage and partially or probably mainly malnutrition as Darrel points out.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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