Do fish attack plants at night?

[Sang72]

I've noticed that in the mornings, there are (generally small) 1-2 pieces of my plants floating on the surface. Lately there have been whole leaves (looks like they were snapped off at the stem). It only seems to happen at night. Are my fishies attacking the plants at night? If so, why?

 

[cat.fish]

hmm...in my friends tank he has only 1 of the black tailed sharks. which ate all of his live plants, now that he has fake ones the shark still tries to nibble on them. i would say that it is the shark.


HTH
cat.fish

 

[tstenback]

I have a pleco that uproots/destroys plants at night but looking at the list of your tank inhabitants I can't see anyone that would do this unless it is the shark (i do not have any experience with them). I have also seen this type of damage done when one fish is running away from another. Don't know if this is a possibility for your tank.

 

[drobbins27]

Its the shark...mine did the same

 

[Feline]

Well, it's my Swordtails and guppies who are constantly picking and pulling the plants ........

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Actually, I'd say it's the gourami. I read they are somewhat herbivorous, and my plants have been chomped on by the fish, and none of the other fish I have would do that. It all started when I added him, too.

Plecs might uproot the plants, but they rasp at the leaves and create holes, weathering, and browning. Don't really cut them up, though.

 

[Sang72]

Well thanks for all the suggestions folks, I still haven't figured it out, but the post about the gouramis made a little light go off. During the two days I didn't have gouramis, (blue to dwarf) there didn't seem to be plant stuff floating on the surface. And I saw one of the little guys nibbling at a plant but I thought he was just eating the algae. The really funny thing is that it's like whole leaves that are being broken off at the stem (where the stem meets the trunk). I dunno......

 

[Devs]

Iam constantly trying to beautify my one tank with my big pleco.Everytime I turn around,I'm either rearranging,or replanting plants. He totally ignores them all day,and then nighttime comes along.Every morning when I turn his lights back on the entire group of plants are floating!!!,and he's sitting there looking totally innocent. On the other hand,I use to have that problem in another tank---turned out that my bala shark didn't like the dark,and use to go crazy in the tank.I stopped turning his lights out,and never had chewed up looking plants again.