Uh oh, whats happening to my Amazon Sword?

[Fishies4Ever]

Hello Rocky. Are these holes just on one leaf? Older leaves can eventually slow or stop its use of nutrients. If this is the only leaf with holes, then remove it. This will encourage new plant growth. If several leaves are affected, then if it's the work of snails, you need to drop some Iceberg Lettuce leaves into the tank to attract the snails. Once you have several snails attached to the lettuce leaf, remove it and toss the leaf out into your garden.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

That’s a really smart idea!!

 

[Byron]

Echinodorus plants use nutrient mobility. If the plant considers it necessary, it can transfer certain nutrients from older leaves to supply new growth. Tht is almost certainly not what is occurring here, so do not start chopping off leaves.

As for food for snails, you would be surprised how much is in a tank even one without fish, and I never observed plant eating by my pond snails in the 20g new fish quarantine tank which sat for months without a fish in it or being fed, yet the snails were fine.

Presumably you are feeding the lonely SAE, so the snails are unlikely to be without sufficient food.

I observed identical holes in a couple sword plants in my90g tank which housed my five Botia kubotai. This species of loach is known to sometimes eat sword leaves, clearly mine were, but very minimal as they were in a large tank with many other fish and all were regularly fed so there was less incentive.

 

[UrLocalFish]

pond snails breed rather quickly, so adding a source of food might encourage the addition of snails instead. The lettuce would help tho, but some snails probably just ignore it, so assassin snails would help a lot.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello again. Don't fret over a damaged leaf. Amazon Swords are hardy plants and if the damage is to one leaf, that's not that bad. The plant will no doubt will recover. Why not use this as a opportunity to try some more fish and snail resistant plants. There are several that will look good in the tank and show some different looks. Like: Any of the Anubias species, Java Fern, Java Moss, Bolbitus, El Nino Fern and Marimo (Moss) Balls. Tweak the plants a little for a change.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Rocky998]

Yah it's not a lot of plant damage... Most of it is just on that leaf, BUT there are some very similar holes on other ones near by

 

[Blackghostknifekid]

what i herd that gets rid of hydra is a nine volt battery attached to the aquarium lol. it should work on snails. (pls remove the fish)