I just can't figure out what it is then. Could it be the snails? I just don't understand why it's those four plants and it doesn't matter where I move them or how deep I bury them. They just keep coming up.
Darters Uprooting plants?
Started by
Guest_AMcCaleb_*
, Nov 10 2013 02:44 PM
29 replies to this topic
#22
Guest_Erica Lyons_*
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Posted 13 November 2013 - 11:07 AM
It's the lack of roots. They're the smallest roots I've ever seen. I'll take a picture of my plants I have floating and show you, floating plants grow more roots than yours have.
#24
Guest_Erica Lyons_*
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Posted 13 November 2013 - 11:33 AM
Have you thought about letting the four problem plants float for a while until they can regrow some roots, then plant the root mass once it's large enough to reach the soil? There's probably a lag phase in the gravel and then explosive growth in the soil. Those that don't reach the soil (these four problem plants) aren't getting the chance at root growth the other plants are. If you let their roots grow long enough to reach the soil while they're floating and then bury them deep enough to reach the soil (leaving all the green stuff above ground so it doesn't rot), they should stay down like your other plants do.
#25
Guest_AMcCaleb_*
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Posted 09 December 2013 - 11:36 AM
Ok, just to put this topic to rest, I recently purchased a ton more dwarf sag for my tank and I had gotten some pygmy chain sword from someone on the forum here. I planted it all in my tank and the next day, a bunch of it was floating at the top of the tank. Some fish had uprooted it during the night. I replanted it and was getting the same thing everyday, more plants uprooted. Last week I decided to remove a large portion of the fish that were in the tank. I took out all but, my Iowa darters, my redbelly dace, and my spotfin shiners. I removed 9 redfin shiners, 2 emerald shiners, 1 mimic shiner, and 1 bullhead minnow. Since then, not a single plant has been uprooted. I was wrong about it being darters but I was right that it was a fish doing it, and not the roots being too small.
#26
Guest_Erica Lyons_*
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Posted 09 December 2013 - 01:41 PM
In the future, your local fish store probably sells lead plant wraps. They're like the size of a strip of scotch tape, shiny silver in color, and extremely flexible. They're heavy for their size, so people wrap them around plant bases to keep them down until they can grow their own roots. The fish store would probably sell them to you for cheaps because if they're dealing in live plants they probably have hundreds of them.
Or you can buy 5 for $0.75 here: http://www.lilybloom...-252953216.html
Mmm, lead. It's got a fascinating history. Flexible enough to be easily worked, so when the Romans made pipes and cooking pots, this was the metal they chose. But poisonous, which some people say is why the later Roman emperors had bad reputations. It's rumored they went crazy from lead poisoning. Lead wraps are not the sort of thing I would keep in the tank long term, but then again, who can tell if a fish is going insane?
Or you can buy 5 for $0.75 here: http://www.lilybloom...-252953216.html
Mmm, lead. It's got a fascinating history. Flexible enough to be easily worked, so when the Romans made pipes and cooking pots, this was the metal they chose. But poisonous, which some people say is why the later Roman emperors had bad reputations. It's rumored they went crazy from lead poisoning. Lead wraps are not the sort of thing I would keep in the tank long term, but then again, who can tell if a fish is going insane?
#27
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 09 December 2013 - 01:55 PM
a piscine psycologist?
but seriously... so these are your candidates... I think I will read a little bit on bullhead minnows... maybe some others here will read up on some of those other species...
but seriously... so these are your candidates... I think I will read a little bit on bullhead minnows... maybe some others here will read up on some of those other species...
- redfin shiners
- emerald shiners
- mimic shiner
- bullhead minnow
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
#28
Guest_AMcCaleb_*
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Posted 09 December 2013 - 04:18 PM
Ok, so it's really between the redfin shiners and the mimic shiner. I'm not 100% sure on the id on the mimic shiner. I think that's what it was. I was 100% positive it was a spotfin shiner (in hand looked the same and was in the same location as other spotfins I caught) until I got it home and got it in the tank and noticed it didn't have a spot on the fin and compared right next to an actual spotfin it had a slightly paler color. It was either a mimic or sand shiner. Anyways, the bullhead minnow was in a quarantine tank for a period of time during the plant uprooting process and I was still dealing with the nightly uprooting with him out of the tank. And the emerald shiners were added a couple weeks after I started having this problem. So, it's really between the redfin shiners or the mimic/sand shiner. I probably would rule out the redfin shiners because the way their mouths open is more upward and they were never really ones to be down in the lower part of the tank. Not even to look for food. The mimic/sand shiner always stayed pretty low in the tank. Usually during the day it hung out towards the bottom right behind the driftwood or in among the ludwigia. That's my guess. And after looking at the pictures on nanfa and just plain googling the two types of fish I can't really tell which one for sure it was. It had almost the exact same body shape as the spotfin shiner but just paler color and no spot on the fin. Anyways, that's all I know.
#29
Guest_AMcCaleb_*
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Posted 09 December 2013 - 04:22 PM
As far as the plant weights go, I've actually got some in a small box from plant orders that I've gotten in, but I don't really like the idea of leaving that in the tank. Besides, it wouldn't have kept the plants from getting uprooted really, it just would have kept the uprooted ones from floating, and it doesn't make sense to attach one of those to every stem of dwarf sag. Some of the plants, especially the pygmy chain sword, had some pretty good sized roots to them. Not like the ones I showed you in the picture which were taken after the same stems had been ripped up and replanted daily for several weeks and there wasn't much left to them.
#30
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 09 December 2013 - 11:41 PM
well you just shot down my theory... I was thinking the P. vigilax was your culprit... and after reading a bit today, they are known bottom feeders that have a bit of algae and plant matter in their diets... so I was gonna blame the bullhead (minnow)... but if he has an alibi, then you will have to look further.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin
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