Re: Fish to eat dead plants? and! Why won't they grow?

["Bill Wichers" <billw at waveform_net>]

>I am looking for some fish to add to my tank to eat dead plant material,
>without bothering the live plants.  Other then the obvious algae eaters (do
>they eat dead plants?) and catfish, are there any other suggestions people
>on the list might have to help keep my tank cleaner?   I currently have 7
>cory cats, 5 ottos, and a guppy (guppy is FAT and always picking off the
>bottom).  Everything else is a tetra.   Suggestions on fish to add?  I do
>want to add about 5-7 ore corys, and about 10 more ottos, as well as a SAE
>or 2 when I find one.  But is there better??    Has anyone experienced any
>fish that really do a good job at this over others?  I was contemplating a
>small school of cherry barbs, but an uncomfortable adding barbs to a tetra
>tank.

I keep some small cory cats that get sunken food bits, and the snails get 
most of the dead plant material as long as there isn't too much. If I have a 
lot of dead or dying leaves I just prune them out. I haven't found any fish 
that is really good at eating the dead plant material -- I usually just 
siphon it out when I see it. 

>Also, my crypts and hygro will not grow.  They are slowly (very slowly)
>losing leaves that turn yellow and deteriorate.  I'm not sure on the
>specific type of plant off hand.   Also my dwarf sword plants (I think, the
>stems are tubular as I found when 'cutting the grass' in one spot, but at
>the top the leaves flattened out into a leaf look rather then a tube, big
>ones were about 5" tall, plant seems to propogate via runners, the roots
>look like the plant as near as I can tell, any help ID'g it?) are growing
>very very slowly if at all, to the point they get algae on them faster then
>they will grow.

Sounds to me like a possible potassium deficiency. I had some similar 
problems with my big swords until I started dosing KNO3 with water changes. 
The K is needed by the plant to help with Fe absorption, so K deficiency 
tends to show the same yellowing of leaves that Fe absorption does. Probably 
would be best to check the two Kent products you mention and see what they 
might be leaving out. I use Seachem's Flourish myself, and add supplemental 
iron and KNO3 with water changes in addition to the Flourish. 

    -Bill 

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Waveform Technology
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