Tinfoils Eating my Amazon Sword plant!

[legoms013]

So I bought a sword plant (I think thats what its called) and put it in my tank and leave for a few hours....when I get back all the small leaves have been nibbled off and now they are working on the big ones....What the heck? Anything I can do or should I stick with fake plants???


Thanks

[cocoa_pleco]

feeding the fish more vegetable matter may work, but else either the plants or fish have to go

[legoms013]

So is there a certain type of plant that may be compatible with my fish or are my fish just going to eat anything I put in my tank?

[cocoa_pleco]

some hardy plants like java fern and java moss might be able to recuperate from any eating, but otherwise no

[legoms013]

Darn. Thats dissappointing. I should have done some research first. Do most fish like to eat live plants?

[cocoa_pleco]

not all, mainly most herbivorous fish and some omnivores

[Algenco]

Darn. Thats dissappointing. I should have done some research first. Do most fish like to eat live plants?

No, not as a rule, but barbs are herbivores

[YaYgoldFish]

Not sure thats true for tinfoil barbs, when i had them i got them fairly big and I sometimes fed them earth worms.

[Lady Hobbs]

You might try using a veggie clip or attaching some romane lettuce to a rock and seeing if they will go towards that instead of the swords. Angels tear them up really bad during spawns, as well.

[madly99]

Maybe they're just hungry? My tetras like to eat my sword plant, too, but I find they leave it alone so long as I keep them fed. On the bright side, you don't have to worry about them as much when you're not around to feed them.

Incidentally my fish don't touch the java fern, and I think it's quite a lovely plant. I also got a white ribbon plant they stay away from, but it turns out white ribbon isn't really aquatic (darn Petco!) and will supposedly die after a few months.

[emma_421]

Java Moss grows like a weed. I don't really see any of my fish eating it. Besides that I would just go with fake. All mine are (besides java moss) and I have nice looking tanks.