Sliceofnature Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 (edited) Hey, i moved a big beautiful amazon sword to my pond a couple of months ago and ever since it looks like something is eating the leaves. All of the leaves are chewed up like this im worried its not gonna make it much longer. The pond just has LF Leopard Danios, MTS, Bladder and Assasin snails as far as i know. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions let me know. Edited July 12, 2021 by Sliceofnature Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted July 12, 2021 Share Posted July 12, 2021 Wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the snails. Your danios look super nice, can you upload some pictures of them? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jungle Fan Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 What kind of substrate is in your pond? Are you supplementing with root tabs? Amazon swords are heavy root feeders, they need a lot of iron, and potassium. Snails will only feed on non healthy leaves, so if your snails are eating the leaves it's because they aren't doing so well to begin with.Years ago I had some Amazon swords in a deck pond with laterite to which I added root tabs and the swords were growing great but they need their iron, either from root tabs, laterite, red clay, or added chelated liquid form like Easy Iron: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/type_fertilizers/products/easy-iron 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted July 13, 2021 Share Posted July 13, 2021 Any plecos? They love swords! I actually keep swords just for my ancistrus. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sliceofnature Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 On 7/12/2021 at 9:53 PM, Jungle Fan said: What kind of substrate is in your pond? Are you supplementing with root tabs? Amazon swords are heavy root feeders, they need a lot of iron, and potassium. Snails will only feed on non healthy leaves, so if your snails are eating the leaves it's because they aren't doing so well to begin with.Years ago I had some Amazon swords in a deck pond with laterite to which I added root tabs and the swords were growing great but they need their iron, either from root tabs, laterite, red clay, or added chelated liquid form like Easy Iron: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/type_fertilizers/products/easy-iron I put an ez root tab in the planter with it when i moved it out there but other than that i think the water is pretty low on nutrients. Ill pop another root tab under it and might pick up some ez iron as well. Thanks for the suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sliceofnature Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 On 7/13/2021 at 1:26 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said: Any plecos? They love swords! I actually keep swords just for my ancistrus. Nope, not yet anyway but i was planning on adding some at some point. It sounds like my sword is doomed… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sliceofnature Posted July 21, 2021 Author Share Posted July 21, 2021 On 7/11/2021 at 8:56 PM, James Black said: Wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the snails. Your danios look super nice, can you upload some pictures of them? Thanks. Theyre longfin leopard danios. I personally think they look reall cool from above in the pond. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 @Sliceofnature If you can get, and keep, your swords growing strong enough, they’ll stay ahead of the plecos (depending on the species). I have an adult clown, a juvie/subadult gold nugget, and 3 juvie bristlenose in my 100 gallon with no sign of them eating anything but maybe old, rotting leaves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 I wonder if the sword is just losing leaves getting acclimated to the new location. If so it should be growing new ones soon. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sliceofnature Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 On 7/21/2021 at 6:34 AM, JettsPapa said: I wonder if the sword is just losing leaves getting acclimated to the new location. If so it should be growing new ones soon. Also a possibility i hadnt considered. Good point, thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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