Do your Clowns....

[Desi]

....eat silk plants? Mine apparently do or at least try to. They are always nipping the edges of the leaves especially around food time like thats their signal they are hungry. The following pics are of the one silk plant thing that is the major target it looks aweful but I don't mind if its not going to harm them if they actually swallow some of that silk. So what do you guys think, leave it alone or take it out and if the answer is take it out how to detach it form the decor as that is one of the fave hidey spots.

Leaf up close look at the tattered edge.


The whole thing the pink part at the back is what they attack the most but I couldn't get it to focus well as its right in the current and moves around just enough to blurr it.


Thanks for your input.

[Hell Fire]

Blimy!! I dont have any silk plants but know loach do nibble on some odd things occasionaly. You can with enough pressure pull the silk plants out of the decor, i done it to a little cave as the plants looked a bit tacly as i have all live ones. Maybe they are telling you they want veg? Or get a plant that clowns like to nibble at maybe then they will leave it alone lol.

[Graeme Robson]

More feedings needed ya tight...so and so....

[dlenn]

I wouldn't like to think of our loaches eating something they shouldn't. I don't know whether the silk would harm them but I wouldn't think that it would do them much good. I think if I were you I would remove the silk ones and put more live ones in there.

dlenn

[helen nightingale]

replacing them with live plants would definately be a good idea, but they will probably detroy them too. at least they wont be eating something not normally found in fish diet then. my yoyos like to dig up plants too.

[botiaboy]

This might end up worse than silk,but you could try plastic plants,being harder,thicker,plus less plant like in texture IMO.I have many in my 26 gallon and have never been attacked by any loaches that have been in that tank,which includes 5 different clowns,1 sinibotia longiventralis and 1 yoyo loach.Just an idea,don't know if it will work

[Primus]

My clowns were gradually fraying the edges of a couple of silk plants i had. I tried some live plants early on and that doesnt seem to work well with clowns either. I have a mixture of plastic and silk ones that arent as flexible/fragile as the original ones and have had no problems with them.

I am thinking i may try one of those live bamboo plants. Not sure if they would try and eat/uproot it like they did the other live plants i tried. Anyone tried one of these with clowns?

[Desi]

I've tried one live plant and that was java fern and they ate the whole thing in like a couple hours. They get zuccinni and cucumber occasionally but they'll only eat the center where the seeds are. I do have some of the harder plastic ones and they do leave them alone. They even leave the other silk ones alone apparently they just don't like this one or something.

[Desi]

More feedings needed ya tight...so and so....

I'm sure they think that. They'd eat all day long if I let them. But I know they aren't starving...they got big belly's.