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Why does my Corimbosa melt?

barbus

barbus

Member
Joined
3 Apr 2010
Messages
27
Location
Mures - Transilvania
Hi all,
I have 2 tanks, both are low techs, with very little or no fertilization at all.
One is 50 L with no fish just with H.corimbosa and a red lotus, planted ( dirt tank) and the other one is 300 L , planted and moderate number of different fish. The lights in both are low.
In the 50 L tank the hygrophyla grows excelent I would say and quite fast, but at the moment I introduce this plant in the big one this is what I get after 24 hours:
http://s149.photobucket.com/user/do...rden/DSC_2183_zpscwwindrc.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0
http://s149.photobucket.com/user/do...rden/DSC_2181_zpsghaylvpr.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

why does it melt away instantly ? it cannot be co2 problem since it grows well in the other low tech plant, so what could be it?
 
I listed the most common fish associated with plant damage/consumption but the list is quite varied including some barbs, tetras, loaches, cichlids ... often plant eating/destruction may be observed with individual specimens/groups while most fish keepers will express surprise at the behaviour.

On several occasions I observed my chocolate gouramis engaged in rampant plant destruction (spitting out each leaf & stem) - I finally removed all the Micranthemum umbrosum, Didiplis diandra (emerse growth ignored) & Cardamine lyrata (stems left untouched but every new leaf was removed, emerse leafs also shredded) from that tank.
I've kept other groups of chocolate gouramis that never touched a leaf.
 
Hav a look at deficiencyfinder.com pleco damag
 
alto said:
On several occasions I observed my chocolate gouramis engaged in rampant plant destruction (spitting out each leaf & stem) - I finally removed all the Micranthemum umbrosum, Didiplis diandra (emerse growth ignored) & Cardamine lyrata (stems left untouched but every new leaf was removed, emerse leafs also shredded) from that tank.
I've kept other groups of chocolate gouramis that never touched a leaf.
Click to expand...

Gourami form bubble nests and tear away small bits of plant to create the nest. You'll see this behaviour increase around spawning time.
 
I have noticed only one fish that would eat plant , but only the tip of them - heteranthera zosterifolia, this fish would be the odessa barb.
I also have green barbrs, some rasboras, 4 bosemani, 2 ancistrus 2 otos.
I think in my case is rather with water parameters than planteating fishes.
I have 4 types of Hygrophyla in that tank, none of them is touched, only the new introduced ones.
 
barbus said:
I think in my case is rather with water parameters than planteating fishes.
Click to expand...
the speed & type of damage is just more consistent with fish damage rather than water parameter "melt" (especially for this plant)

Transfer the ancistrus & otos to your other tank, then add the H.corimbosa - this should quickly sort out the most likely scenario :)
 
If I examin closely the leaf, those deficiencies does not look like fish bites or similar, it is pure plant desintegration. I've never seen ancistrus eating leafs like that in such scale..:)
 
barbus said:
If I examin closely the leaf, those deficiencies does not look like fish bites or similar, it is pure plant desintegration. I've never seen ancistrus eating leafs like that in such scale..:)
Click to expand...
well - there's a first time for everything - now you HAVE seen it..........
Sorry, mate, but I second, third etc.......this is fish-damage. Odessa are plant-eaters and pleco's are "sure death" to several plant-species.
 
ok, let's say it is fish damage , what to do about it? I was wondering if there is some kind of food with high plant vegetable content.
 
Check out your substrate. I had that happened with hydrophila and blamed the pleco for a while. Then I moved the pleco and the hydrophila to another tank and never saw this again. When I tore down my old tank it turned out the substrate had gone anaerobic. It stunk horribly. I've emptied other tanks over the years and never ever smelled hydropgen sulphate like that before. I had soil capped with volcanic sand in this tank, not that it matters what the substrate is but in this tank it had gone bad.

The hydrophila disintegrated in a similar matter within the space of 1-3 days, extremely fast even for a plant attacked by fish because it visibly refused to grow. I am the owner of two plecos and I've never seen them eat hydrophila. They eat amazon swords like a salad but the damage they do is totally different. In that same problem tank I also had 3 amazon swords the leaves of which remained intact so it was highly unlikely the pleco was in a plant eating mood as that same pleco destroyed amazon swords numerous times over the years. I've never seen him go at hydrophila. The amazon swords did not grow one bit in 8 months at all in the problem tank. No plants grew at all but it was only the hydrophila that died off fast as if it were shocked by something. Hence I suspected something being toxic to it in my tank. I moved all fish, including the pleco, amazon swords and hydrophila to another tank and the plants exploded with growth within weeks. I am pretty certain the hydrophila is a bit more sensitive to substrate gone bad. I wish I kept a picture of it but it looked very much like yours. That's not to say that yours can't be fish damage.

How are the rest of your plants fairing in there? If the substrate is the issue, you won't see much growth and plants will just hang in there, but not grow much at all.
 
Straight Shooter said:
Why do these guys differ from other gourami who are bubble nesters? Are they unique in the gourami family in this respect?
Click to expand...
I've no idea really - I'm not much up on the Trichogaster Trichopodus Trichopsis "gourami" species (but believe them to be mostly nest builders)

Sphaerichthys available in the trade, either paternal or maternal mouthbrooders

Parasphaerichthys: tend to be less available, nest builders

@barbus apologies on the thread hijack :oops: :sorry:
 
@sciencefiction : My substrate is a 3 years old ada amazonia covered with Aqua medic volcanit .
I have no idea how dirty my substrate is, but when I pull out a plant or any piece of wood or little substrate I cannot really tell it stinks that bad, it has some smell yes but accordint to that age I find that normal.
Talking about a lowtech tank, I rarely do a water change maybe 3 times a year :), I have 2 eheim external canister filters full with biofilter they do a good job.
I remember only one time when my whole tank stunk really bad- in that time my water was attacked by bluegreenalgea- that stunk really nasty.
As for the other plants- they grow extremely slow , my water here is very soft , aroung 3 GH that could be a problem also , don't know...
I used to have lowtech tanks in the past too, but I never remember that plants grew that slow, so yeah you could be right with the substrate , but how to check or test it?
I am gonna link here a video of the whole tank, maybe that gives a better idea ..
 
The tank is nice and the fish are very lively. Some of the plants, although I've seen way worse, seem to be struggling. I can't pinpoint the cause to be honest. It could be nutrients, it could be a combination of things. I would concentrate on any fast growers, the hydrophila and others, to find out what the cause is exactly.
As for the substrate, when you pull out plants from the substrate there should be no smell. All substrate has some anaerobic zones but the levels of hydrogen sulphate should not be such that the human nose can detect. If you can smell it, it's toxic to plants and fish when it escapes in the water column, although I've read it leaves the water column pretty fast.
 
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