# Rainbows eating my... ???



## stalefish83 (May 22, 2014)

It appears that my new rainbow cichlids have a taste for anubias. What the heck?? I've always read that anubias is THE plant that will NOT get eaten.... don't tell my rainbows that, I guess. Anybody else experience this? I don't want my nice lush leaves to get chomped down to nothing. Any ideas on how to keep them from eating my plants?

I feed them about 3 times a day, omega 1 veggie pellets as a staple and alternate between frozen brine shrimp, beef heart, and daphnia on occasion. Should I maybe get another more appetizing plant, maybe some floating plants that they would rather eat, or would it just get destroyed?

Thanks!


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## Bd79 (Apr 11, 2011)

Interesting. I've kept rainbow cichlids for years and never seen them eat a plant, let alone anubias.

Guess that doesn't help you, but it's all I've got.


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

Are they actually eating the leaves or are they just grazing the algae off of them? If I remember correctly, they actually have special teeth for that specific purpose.


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## stalefish83 (May 22, 2014)

I have seen them each the algae off the plants as well, and I'm totally cool with that (that was one of the perks of getting them) but I do believe they are eating the actual leaves as well. To be totally honest I haven't actually caught them in the act, but the very next day after I introduced them I noticed some significant damage to a few of the leaves, and it had certainly looked like "munch" damage. There were also two leaves loose and floating around (one of them a new bloom, argh!) and I think they managed to pull those off as well. This tank has been going for a while now with no issues with the plants, and as soon as I add the rainbows I start seeing these things. 1 + 1 = rainbows are eating my anubias

...or coincidence and something else is going on


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## livingroomdiver (Oct 10, 2011)

I have seen them eat away some dead and decaying anubias leaves, and they definitely are algae lovers. That said, they did strip my java fern down to nothing, so anything can happen.


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## stalefish83 (May 22, 2014)

Java fern is supposed to be about as "unattractive" as anubias, so I'm not holding out much hope... here is what they've done so far

CAM02105 by stalefish83, on Flickr


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## football mom (Feb 19, 2006)

My rainbow pair will leave "munch-marks" on the anubias in their tank as well, but I have noticed they don't do this as much since I started feeding them lots of Dainichi veggie deluxe pellets. And their fry grow very quickly eating the Dainichi as well.


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