Holes In New Amazon Sword Leaves.

[KevM]

The plants have only been in for two weeks and all of the new sword leaves coming through have holes in them. Loads and loads of small holes, and the leaves are turning yellow-to-brown.

The tank measures 36" x 18" x 19". The lights are 2 x 39w T5 (6500k bulbs) and I'm dosing Easycarbo and APF all in one, daily. I also used JBL root tabs for the swords. The substrate is Aquabase topped by play sand. Everything else is growing really well. The Vallis is going nuts and taking over already. The old leaves on the swords look lovely but the new ones are messed up!

I'm guessing there's a pottasium deficiency but APF all in one is supposed to contain everything needed, no?

 

[Tuxyu3]

Are the leaves going see through? THey are probably just melting due to being used to different growing conditions (out of water in plant farms i believe), they should get over it.

Edit: My bad i did not see you mention it was just all the new leaves, i have limited experience with swords so i am probably not the best to give advice. Although one thing i can think of is maybe snails?

 

[KevM]

Nope, they're not going see-through. It's just every new leaf is full of holes.

 

[Tizer]

fish eating them? got loaches?

 

[LucyB]

I had this with my sword for a few months, I trimmed off all of the worst leaves and that promoted new growth, the new leaves are perfect and the plant is healthy now, no holes

 

[tribalbrit]

Could be a iron deficiency.. Swords love iron. Or pleco or loaches eating them

 

[deftuch]

amazon swords will quickly yellow if they arent getting enough nutrients, but particually iron, they do well in smaller substrate as they can grow better, how big were the roots wen you got the new plant? you shoul trim them to 5cm before replanting

 

[KevM]

I trimmed the roots down to 3cm-5cm before planting. I'd be a bit disappointed if there is a nutrient deficiency, given the use of root tabs and APF all in one. I do have loaches (B. histrionica) but surely if they were the culprits it wouldn't be just the new leaves. In fact, I'm sure it can't be them as I could see holes in the new leaves before they were even properly formed. I think I'll just follow LucyB's advice for now and prune them.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah, give them a trim and see what new growth you get, if it continues then its a deficiency.

 

[KevM]

I just trimmed them down and on closer inspection I am pretty sure that this actually is being done by some of my fish. The Black Ruby Barbs are the main suspects, at the moment; they've been spending a lot of time in and around the swords. I thought that these guys were OK with plants but I'm fairly sure (after observing them pecking at the leaves today) that they're the culprits.

 

[deric79k]

catch the fish and cook it .

 

[DreamertK]

catch the fish and cook it .

That's not very nice. I'm sure you'd eat whatever you could get your hands on if you were locked in a bathroom stall with some beautiful delicious plant growing along the wall.

I would just suggest feeding more, or algea inserts for fish.

 

[KevM]

Too late; they've been swapped for new fish. I don't know why they were doing it. I do feed plenty of spirulina, etc.

 

[DreamertK]

Good luck!