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Re: SAE's and Rotala wallichii



on 01:48 PM 7/16/00 , Jared Weinberger wrote:

>Tom, your SAE's must be related to our five :) I wasn't sure if they
>actually eat the ultrafine leaves or damage them trying to clean them.
>However, they hang out there quite a lot, so I think they are well past the
>cleaning stage. In any case, our wallichii is surviving and growing, but
>nothing to write homepage about. Too bad, because I really like the
>contribution this plant makes to an aquascape.

Just as another data point, I have R. Wallichi doing very well in my 75 
gallon tank - it's growing across the surface and is bright red. The four 
large SAEs in the tank don't seem to nibble on it. The only leaves that 
look nibbled at all are some toward the bottom which were produced before I 
got my nitrate levels in order and were brown anyway. Certainly the healthy 
pink leaves on the tops are unharmed, and I thought those were supposed to 
be the tastiest.

Perhaps (A) SAEs only eat unhealthy Wallichi, or (B) they only eat it if 
they don't have any more preferred foods. My tank has various algae here 
and there. I also feed flakes daily for the danios and neons, and shrimp 
pellets every few days for the Brochis cats, and the SAEs like to nibble on 
both of these.

For a while I was convinced that my SAEs were eating my Ambulia (L. indica) 
but now it's also growing like a weed and appears unharmed.

--
michael moncur   mgm at starlingtech_com   http://www.starlingtech.com/
"My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot."
                 -- Ashleigh Brilliant