Amazon Sword

[PhishPhreek]

10 weeks ago I set up a planted tank - 68g (tall 55) with a marine lt fixture 2-10k, 2-7.5k & moonlights and old sandblast gravel.
It has been going great and my amazon sword plant  12+" wide and 16" tall with all kinds of new leaves but all of a suddone all the new leaves have hundreds of little holes in them.   Is this a light problem, a fertilizer problem or too many plecos ???

 

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Amazon Sword

What kind of plecos are in the tank?

Looks like a nutrient problem though....amazons feed heavily through the roots so you might wanna try adding some root tabs for it.

[Mzungu]

Re: Amazon Sword

It's the new leaves that have the holes? That's strange...

I'll second ek's suggestion, to add some root tabs / other ferts, as it's most likely a nutrient deficiency.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Amazon Sword

Just remembered but are you still leaving the lights on 24/7?

[rrocket2002]

Re: Amazon Sword

I assume no snails in the tank?

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Amazon Sword

The light is still by hand - but no longer 7-24.  More like the fire dept. 1 day on and 2 days off.

I have one onange stripe and 3 albino brissle nose (3").   There is still a little algie on the ferns & val but in general the broad leaf plants (sword, cript & Bacopia) are clean.

Upon closer inspection the new sword leaves (inner circle) and the old old leaves (small base leaves) do not have holes, but the larger leaves, and the new leaves from last month do have holes.  So the holes are in the center leaves not the top & bottom.

I just found 2 of the older bacopia leaves have holes.

I still have a lot of tiny MTS but I haven't seen a large one since the tire-track moved in.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Amazon Sword

The orange stripe might be a plant eating pleco but if they eat plants you know cause it will look like they ate them.

MTS from what I have seen do not eat plants...

Try adding a root tab at the base of the sword and see if that helps....are you dosing any kind of fertilizers PP?

[CptCrusty1]

Re: Amazon Sword - plus CO2?

I have an Amazon sword too, was great when I bought it, but is anorexic at best now.  I've had it for a couple years and it seems to keep living, but not thriving.

STATS:
55g,
2 light strips (generic, nothing special)  
External canister filter.  
1 generic pleco (chicken, hides, dark brown w/white spots, hides constantly),
2 pink kissers (1 is 4 inch, 1 is about 7 inches)
1 giant danio (2.5 inch)
1 rainbow tetra of sorts
2 blue cobalt rams
2 med angels (from Cameo's stock)
1 rosy barb tetra
4 cardinals,
1 chinese algea eater (lazy, probably has lead based paint).
2 snails that keep the algea away really well.

The amazon is actually doing better in this tank than it did in my 35 g hex. probably cuz the 55 is shorter and light is brighter..  I'm thinking about building a yeast-powered CO2 system...
Any thoughts?

[Bogdan]

Re: Amazon Sword

I had a similar situation with the sword however in my case the cause were bunch of Otos. For some reason they liked to clean particularly the sword leaves and were doing a "great job", eventually the leaves looked like a mesh. Still have this plant but it really doesn't grow much. I am not sure about your BN but they are also mouth suckers, right. If you watch closely the tank for a while you will find out.

[dblondfemme]

Re: Amazon Sword

Every time I get a sword I just "assume" it will lose it's leaves.  The leaves that grow in are glorious.  I do not do ferts, I do have a 10,000k bulb over the 75 gallon, but I leave it off and the tank gets a bit of natural light from a window about 10 feet away.  I have no words of wisdom, but I do not.  I only have hope to offer.  I have a pretty heavy bio load so I think the plants and fish greatly help each other out.  I keep mystery snails and trapdoors in to help clean up the dead leaves.  There are also 2 common plecos that have grown from about 1.5" to 4-5" in about 2 months lol.  They just come out and eat the leftovers.

[J-WS6]

Re: Amazon Sword

i had the same problem with my amazons when i had my puffer in the 55. i also had some hygrophila angustifolia in there too under 10k lighting and that did perfectly fine. strange.

[Mzungu]

Re: Amazon Sword

CptCrusty1 - It could be a couple of things. First, how old are the light bulbs? Are they just normal 40W fluorescents? It could be that you need to replace the bulbs. Also, what kind of snails? If you have only 2, I'm assuming that they're not just the run-of-the-mill ramshorn/pond snails. If they're a type of apple snail, they may be eating your plant.

If you've had it for a couple of years, that's good! At least it's still alive.  :)  Have you ever added any root tabs or ferts to the tank? If I remember correctly, swords like iron as well as root ferts.

A DIY CO2 system isn't a bad idea, it just depends on what you're planning on using (size of bottle) for your 55.

What kind of substrate is in the tank (just curious)?

Edit: BTW, when I added CO2 to my tank with a sword in it that was a few years old, I was amazed. I had never seen it so healthy. So either way, CO2 won't hurt.  8)

[thomas]

Re: Amazon Sword

I also encounter the same problem with my sword. I just cut up the leaves with hole, and three more new leaves came out. The substrate is plain, no co2 and no fertilizer. if anyone know the correct solution to the problem, please feel free to post it up.

[CptCrusty1]

Re: Amazon Sword

Mzungu,

Basic substrate (gravel).  I add "stuff" to the water, liquid pet food.  When I change the bulbs, They perk up a bit, but not much.  After a couple months, no differance anymore.

The snails have been there a year.  No wholes in the leaves... it just won't grow.

Does that help?

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Amazon Sword

Well I have left the other lights off and just used the daylight bulbs and I have a new growth of 12-18 leaves without holes so I'm going to get the sisors out and trimm away the old tatered and holey leaves to make room.