Thanx for the link, but that page doesn't mention my problem. A lot of
the plants have holes as the leaves grow. In the case of the
echinodorus, this means holes, in the case of the twisted vallis, this
means the leaves often break off completely. The nearest thing on his
page is pin-sized holes that slowly enlarge. Mine are bigger to start
with.

Then I don't think it's a nutrient deficiency. I think something's eating the
leaves. Often, a fish will bite the nice, tender, baby leaves when they are
still small and/or curled up. As the leaves unfold and get bigger, the holes
get larger and/or seem to multiply.

Often, you don't see the culprit. They do it at night, or when you aren't
around. It took me months to catch my loaches at it, because every time I came
near the tank, they either when into hiding, or swam up to the top to beg for
food. I had to spy on them from around a corner to see them committing the
dirty deed. (And the same thing happens to my twisted Val as to yours: the
leaves break off. And i *know* it's the clown loaches.)

The only thing I can
think of is that I was using Tetra plant fertiliser liquid, but recently
started using PMDD (bought from someone who posted about it on this
group some time ago).

I don't think that's your problem. PMDD is a much more complete fertilizer than
the Tetra.

Only other thought is that the bottle I use to store the PMDD liquid has
some white solids stuck to the bottom.

I suppose it could be calcium. As Chuck's page notes, calcium defiency can
cause leaves to be deformed. But the Tetra doesn't have any calcium at all, so
I doubt this is the problem.

If you can, get some photos of the damage. And tell us what kind of fish you
have. My money's on the fish being the cause. (My loaches were well-behaved
for years before learning the plants were tasty, and other people have had the
same experience. So even if you haven't added any new fish recently, it could
still be them.)


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/