Nutrient deficiency or hungry otos?
 

Hi,

I have a 20 gallon aquarium, which is partially planted. The light seems
adequate (a double-strip T8 32W lamp is suspended one feet above the
aquarium) and the substrate consists of 50% flourite. I also have a
yiest-based CO2 system that has been going for a month now. However, one
of my Amazon swords seems to be in bad condition. Some leaves are covered
with holes, but most are fine.

My water parameters are as follows:

pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 - 0.15 ppm
Nitrate: 10 - 20 ppm
GH: 10 dGH = 179 ppm
KH: 5 dKH = 89.5 ppm

I also took a picture of some of the leaves that show the problem, it can
be found at the following address:

http://web.pdx.edu/~rkrush/amazon.jpg

What could be the problem?

Thanks in advance!

Richard

--
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War
IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein

Nutrient deficiency or hungry otos?
 

Do you have loaches in your tank by chance? I know Clown loaches will leave
the half moon shapes, I've seen it on other sword plants people brought into
the LFS, personally I've never seen my loaches do that to my swords, but
then they eat all the food I throw into the tank.

Otherwise your sword looks quite healthy to me.

Matt


"Richard Krush" wrote in message
...

Hi,

I have a 20 gallon aquarium, which is partially planted. The light seems
adequate (a double-strip T8 32W lamp is suspended one feet above the
aquarium) and the substrate consists of 50% flourite. I also have a
yiest-based CO2 system that has been going for a month now. However, one
of my Amazon swords seems to be in bad condition. Some leaves are covered
with holes, but most are fine.

My water parameters are as follows:

pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 - 0.15 ppm
Nitrate: 10 - 20 ppm
GH: 10 dGH = 179 ppm
KH: 5 dKH = 89.5 ppm

I also took a picture of some of the leaves that show the problem, it can
be found at the following address:

http://web.pdx.edu/~rkrush/amazon.jpg

What could be the problem?

Thanks in advance!

Richard

--
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War
IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein

Nutrient deficiency or hungry otos?
 

"Peimur" writes:

Do you have loaches in your tank by chance? I know Clown loaches will leave
the half moon shapes, I've seen it on other sword plants people brought into
the LFS, personally I've never seen my loaches do that to my swords, but
then they eat all the food I throw into the tank.

Otherwise your sword looks quite healthy to me.

Matt


Thanks for the response!

I do have loaches, three Botia striata and two Botia histrionica. From the
first day when I brought them (a week or two ago) they chose that
particular amazon sword as their hiding place. I guess that explains the
holes :) Thanks for the information, I had no idea loches would eat plants!

Regards!

Richard

--
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War
IV will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein

Nutrient deficiency or hungry otos?
 

You can also see a loach nearly caught red handed...or um...shall we say red
finned? Look towards the bottom of the picture...I see a loach right in
there, munching on his oversized verision of romaine lettuce.

http://web.pdx.edu/~rkrush/amazon.jpg

:)

"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I agree with Matt. Those aren't caused by any deficiency, and it's not
the
otos, either. Those look like a loach has been munching. You can see the
shape of its mouth in the shape of some of the holes.

If you don't have a loach, it's something with a loach-like mouth, that
bites,
not scrapes. Otos and pl*cos leave damage of a different sort -- scraped
and
frayed looking, not the clean holes you've got.


Leigh

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