Plants are always floating up :(

[Pterophyllum]

Hi everyone.

I cannot solve this problem even with larger gravel.

The plants are always floating up, like some small leaves, and small portions of the leaves and stems.

I have a giant pleco in my tank, and many other fishes.

I don't know if the fishes will do anything, since I always see them chewing a little bit on my plant leaves.

It's really becoming a bother to me.

Thanks

[Alfcea]

Well... I guess the first question to ask is... what type of plants do you have? Do you know the name of them? Some plants are actually floating plants and do better when floating up...

[Pterophyllum]

Well... I guess the first question to ask is... what type of plants do you have? Do you know the name of them? Some plants are actually floating plants and do better when floating up...

Oh, um. I cannot remember.

I do know that they are not the type of plants that float. I know how floating plants look like.

But this one has some reddish color, and some green color.

I also have water sprites that float up too. Although my pleco might be the one responsible, though I don't know if that would be the problem.

All my other plants like the ruffle sword, cork screw valve, green hedge, and other swords are not having any problem.

The ruffle sword is doing well regenerating itself.

[DrNic]

You mentioned that there was a pleco in the tank. Because they tend to graze for algae they can sometimes uproot plants or rip of leaves. I've had similar problems in tanks with plecos or larger algae grazing cats.

If you're problem is entire plants getting uprooted you can try getting some plant weights from the store or online. They tend to work pretty well, you just have to make sure you don't put them on too tight.

As for leaves and small plant bits that start floating there isn't really a lot you can do other than try to clean it or toss some zucchini into the tank to give the pleco a better source of food to reduce damage on your plants.

[korith]

Think the pleco is your culprit like others suggested. You could always just use hornwort in your tank, grows quickly enough.