Eating dwarf hair grass

[slickwillislim]

I just noticed a few hours after the apistos went into my tank that alot of my hair grass are just a bunch of stubs poking up out of the ground. Some of them where the remainders of the emersed version that hasnt completely died yet. All the ones left look healthy but there isnt all that much that they didnt eat. I havent actually seen them eat it but the tetras, shrimp, zebra loach, and ottos have all been in with the plants for a couple of months now and i havent seen a sing hair grass get eaten. Is this normal or are they just a little hungry after the long trip. Thanks for all your guys help.

 

[slickwillislim]

Am i the only one who has experienced plant eating apistos.

 

[Mike Wise]

Based on stomach content studies, apistos are predominantly carnivorous, eating mostly aquatic crustaceans and their larvae. Detritus is another major portion of the stomach contents, probably eaten while sifting for food. Often apistos will eat plant material, which they chew to remove mico-organisms living on the plants. The only species of apisto presently known to eat plants as a part of their diet is A. steindachneri. I imagine that your apistos found a good crop of micro-organisms on your hair grass. I always for it an excellent source for fry food.

 

[slickwillislim]

But i dont see any floating grass and they have killed a lot of stems. Everyone has told me the same thing that they dont eat plants so maybe there is a micorganism of some sort on it but do they have to kill it to get at it. My mom has my digital camera so i cant take any pictures. David soares said the same thing that he has never heard of Bitaeniata's eating plants and these are F1's from him. I will keep a lookout and see if i can actually see them devour it instead of just biting it off and later I cant find it. Thanks for the advice, I guess plant eating apistos is not something that is very common.

Thanks for the help.

 

[slickwillislim]

i just counted and when i got to 200 i gave up but it isnt much more than this. Thats 200 blades/stems or whatever they are called that have been eaten or destroyed(not sure which) by 4 bitaeniata. There is till probably 300 left but at this rate they will destroy it all by the end of next week. This is not that horrible since i only payed about 3.20 for the hair grass but i got fom online and cant get it locally so its a pain to get more but if it is a good hiding place for micro organisms apistos like to eat than its worth it as long as they dont kill it all.

ps i counted the stubs poking out of the sand to get the 200

 

[fishgeek]

my dwarf hair grass has died back to shrt stems as you are describing

andrew

 

[slickwillislim]

Really yours just died back like that. Mine is still growing new stems but maybe it was just the plants dying back really fast. I dont think this is the problem because i posted this question on aquatic plant central and they didnt mention a die back in the hair grass but I will do some research eventually and see what i can dig up about hair grass.

Yay my biggest of the two bitaeniata males is starting to get his color back and i love his blue and yellow coloring cant wait for the other one to get adjusted. These are beautiful little fish so glad i decided to get into apistos of course i only have four but hopefully that doesnt last long.

 

[dog trainer]

you mentioned snais ,i lost two female betas in a small tank full of pond snails cut them open. distended bellys full of shells,could that happen to apistogramma

 

[dog trainer]

you mentioned snais ,i lost two female betas in a small tank full of pond snails cut them open. distended bellys full of shells,could that happen to apistogramma

 

[dog trainer]

oops, sorry wrong thread