Amazon Swords melting

[Artemas]

My Amazon swords are melting and have holes in them  see photo. I have a new 40 gallon breeder tank 6 weeks old  with a 1200 lumen planted tank 6500k led fixture now running 12 hours and everything is doing fine but my swords.  Tank has 18 brilliant rasboras, 6 nerite snails and 2 clown plecos, java ferns, water sprites with no co2. I dose the tank with easy green 2x weekly and supplement the aquasoil with root tabs. Nitrates are  below 5, ph 6.6, gh 6, kh 3. I  do see new growth that looks fine so they may just be adjusting to being submerged.  Thank you.  . 

[DiscusLover]

On 4/12/2023 at 3:11 PM, Artemas said:

My Amazon swords are melting and have holes in them  see photo. I have a new 40 gallon breeder tank 6 weeks old  with a 1200 lumen planted tank 6500k led fixture now running 12 hours and everything is doing fine but my swords.  Tank has 18 brilliant rasboras, 6 nerite snails and 2 clown plecos, java ferns, water sprites with no co2. I dose the tank with easy green 2x weekly and supplement the aquasoil with root tabs. Nitrates are  below 5, ph 6.6, gh 6, kh 3. I  do see new growth that looks fine so they may just be adjusting to being submerged.  Thank you.  . 

It rather looks like your plecos have been eating your swords. Plecos are known to eat Amazon swords thats why people usually do not keep these two together.

[Artemas]

Thank you. 

[BM3]

Do SAE eat swords also? I’m having the same problem. 

[DiscusLover]

On 4/12/2023 at 9:33 PM, BM3 said:

Do SAE eat swords also? I’m having the same problem. 

Not for my case, I usually never heard of sae munching down on sae. Usually its plecos or some loaches. 

[Lennie]

I had the same issue before. And my pleco is a carnivore. So I don't think it is  pleco eating it in this scenario. The leaves feel like a crisp when u take it out, right?

My amazon sword went through this for ages as well, and suddenly started growing nice green leaves. But this time, it looks like a dwarf sag. 😄 

Maybe it just does not like your water. Who knows. Pretty sure mine does not like my water. Because I was also supplementing it enough. Plants are weird no matter how hardy they are mentioned as. Meanwhile, my echinodorus leopard grows insane under the exact same conditions. You never know!

Edited April 13, 2023 by Lennie

[Flying fox 6523]

I've struggled with live plant's for I don't know how long, but I think I 
finally got a hold on them after I have added a under gravel filter to 
my 75 gal, my red flame swords have started to take off & my other
swords have really perked up a long with all the other plant's I have.

Sword plant's need a lot of food & the red swords need a lot of light 
so by using a under gravel filter it really helps the plant's to grow &
what light I'm using is a 50 watt led flood light, I have it on for like 
8-12 hrs. & I turn it off & I have a low beam light I turn on later.

With my setup it has made a world of difference with my plant's 
it never hurts to try different things & wait a month to see if it 
works or not & yes it may seem like a lot of work but in the long run 
it's worth it when you get the results your looking for with plant's.

[AndEEss]

Swords are typically grown emersed (leaves partially or fully above water) at the large, industrial scale warehouses they come from. Why? Less/no algae, greater access to CO2, etc. 

As a result, the mature leaves that grew above water melt back. New leaves that are 100% submersed will replace them.

I would trim those leaves off so the plants can put more energy into growing the new leaves.

 

[Artemas]

Thank you 

[RalphValentine]

On 4/13/2023 at 7:57 PM, Flying fox 6523 said:

I've struggled with live plant's for I don't know how long, but I think I 
finally got a hold on them after I have added a under gravel filter to 
my 75 gal, my red flame swords have started to take off & my other
swords have really perked up a long with all the other plant's I have.

Sword plant's need a lot of food & the red swords need a lot of light 
so by using a under gravel filter it really helps the plant's to grow &
what light I'm using is a 50 watt led flood light, I have it on for like 
8-12 hrs. & I turn it off & I have a low beam light I turn on later.

With my setup it has made a world of difference with my plant's 
it never hurts to try different things & wait a month to see if it 
works or not & yes it may seem like a lot of work but in the long run 
it's worth it when you get the results your looking for with plant's.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will keep it in my mind.

[Andy's Fish Den]

You said that the tank is a new set up, and I am guessing that the plants are new as well? If so, the swords are melting back, the emersed grown leaves are dying, melting, and new submersed growth leaves will grow in and take their place. You can either leave the dying leaves in and leave them be or you can trim them off. Be sure to use some root tabs with your swords, they are heavy root feeders. 

[rockfisher]

Two things swords need are lots of root tabs and added potassium fertilizer. You can make your k fertilizer it helps the holes in the leaves I am an agronomist that said my expertise i on land plants but those swords don’t look like there being eaten. Up the fert tabs and try to to make this fertilizer it’s very easy if you have trouble with it I can show you when I get out oc the hospital

 

[Flying fox 6523]

On 4/18/2023 at 2:47 AM, RalphValentine said:

Thanks for the suggestion, I will keep it in my mind.

The main thing to keep in mind is swords are root feeders 
so you have to keep root tabs under the roots & as they
get bigger the more root tabs they have to have to grow.