Missing guppy grass

[Lonkley]

Monday I planted guppy grass after running through reverse osmosis. Yesterday I looked and the entire plant is missing. It was weighted down with plant weights. 

I have guppies, rummy nose, otoconclus, and reticulated hillstream loaches, amanos.

Is it possible any of them ate every inch with no trace? The tank is filled with plants untouched. 

Kinda bummed, I always wanted guppy grass and it's the first time I've seen it. They only had 4 clumps last week so I doubt they have any more. 

 

 

 

[Whitecloud09]

Very interesting, yes some fish will eat guppy grass but I’ve never known fish to eat every single bite of a plant…. Very strange. 

[HelplessNewbie]

How long did you seltzer soak the guppy grass? Guppy grass is one of those plants that are more delicate when I RR, so I only soak them 2-3 hrs. If the temperature of the seltzer water and the subsequent tap water is very different from your tank water, or if the specimens of guppy grass were already weak, or if too long a seltzer soak, it could have melted away entirely (or helped along to final oblivion by the fish).

[Lonkley]

I soaked longer than I liked because of the holiday. 18 hours. But it was fully intact and I know it was still planted a couple days later.  House ambient temp is only a couple degrees different. Also I would expect stems still anchored and my intake sponge being a mess.

[SoDaksam]

Bought a batch of that a few months back.  Did alright for a bit.  Then, it died off. Now I remove about a hand full or two a week.  Growing like wild fire.  Not sure what I’ve done different.  Like it tho. 

[Lonkley]

I've kind of made peace. Either I'll find it again or some piece floated somewhere and will grow in the column and I can replant it. Or I'll just have to find something else suitable for fry. They don't have a lot of good hiding places the other fish won't be able to get to.

Wish I could tell Mom to go to the Java moss

Edited June 2 by Lonkley

[HelplessNewbie]

If you have an opportunity to experiment, I would suggest floating hornwort (2 hr seltzer soak). Hornwort made it possible for my panda guppy fry to survive. Others also suggested to me floating water sprite or water wisteria.

Edited June 2 by HelplessNewbie

[Lonkley]

Ironically..

My wife just asked me to look at a fish sitting on a leaf. I go look and it's a female guppy on the far end of the tank at the very top of rotella with just like one leaf above her. Plants everywhere and she goes to the very top of the column.  So I see a fry come out of her (first time catching one being born) and a1/4 second later another guppy ate it. I barely had time to register what I was seeing. 

 

I just have them a daphnia cube as a decoy but pretty sure Mom is off eating.

[Little Guys]

Did you locate the weight?  If so was the plant chewed down?

[Lonkley]

I didn't look for the weight, it would just kick up the soil under the gravel.  And no, just disappeared.

 

[Little Guys]

On 6/8/2024 at 9:28 PM, Lonkley said:

I didn't look for the weight, it would just kick up the soil under the gravel.  And no, just disappeared.

 

That is not logical, nothing is goiing to eat the weight and items don't just disappear.  I would assume that it got caught on something and pulled out without you noticing.

[Lonkley]

It was 3 or 4 days in the tank. It just disappeared. Nothing was pulled out. There was nothing on the intake sponge.

As for the weight. It's still somewhere under the gravel but I'm not going to go looking for it. I'm sure it'll show up one day but it's not worth kicking up dirt for.