someone keep pulling up my plants!

hammerhead

I am trying to build a planted tank but every day or two i have to replant the floating plants. any suggestions on how to keep them in place? the fish in the tank are: 1 placo, 1 Clown Loach, 13 neon tetras, 5 cherry and 5 huge gold barbs,2 gouramis,1 Betta,1 Red Tailed Shark. as of now im trying weights but i know its not good for them and only a temporary fix. any help is appreciated.

Angel079

Welcome tot he Forum!

How deep is your gravel in the tank? And what size is you gravel? And what plants are the one's that come back up?

Sorry I answer your questions with more questions but I wanna be able to help you and its not the fish that you have causing a problem so I'm trying to figure out for you what is causing this

hammerhead

gravel is a good 3" deep, 2" of a pea gravel/ river rock and at least 1" of the eco-complete on top. my corkscrew vallis keep getting pulled up. they are only about 4 to 5 inches tall.

Oldfishlady

It could be the pleco but most likely the Clown Loach rooting around digging for snails/food could be doing it, the barbs could also be pulling them up. You could try placing a large rock over the roots after you plant it.

Depending on what size your tank is I see many problems in the near future with your stocking.

redchigh

I think it's goblins sneaking into your house at night and pulling them up.

Okay, okay, oldfishlady is right. probably the loaches, but instead of placing a rock on them, get 3 or 4 rocks and place them around it, about 1-2 inches deep where the tops of the rocks are just at the surface of the gravel.
That way they can't go at it from the side, and they won't get crushed. Have to be careful not to plant vallis too deep ya know :-p

aunt kymmie

I, on the other hand, doubt it's the loach. I also have three inches of sand substrate and a herd of loaches (five clowns) and none of my plants have ever been "floaters". Is it the same type of plants that are always floating? Just curious, what size is this tank?

hammerhead

it is a 75gal tank. the loach is smaller that the gold barbs. how deep should the vallis be?

redchigh

The crown (where all the leaves meet at the bottom of the plant) should be at the gravel level or a hair above.

Claudia1002

This reminds me of a video I saw on youtube
"When loaches attack"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfzLz5G88rA

hammerhead

tried the rocks, still did not help. what if i made a cage out of stainless steel mesh to keep fish away? would stainless steel hurt the aquarium?