My shrimps won't stop eating my bananas!! >:(

Hello all,

So I bought another banana plant from my LFS awhile ago. Unfortunately all the ones they had, had the bananas buried in the substrate, so they were yellow instead of green. It was only $2 so I decided to take a chance and hope the bananas recovered.

I planted it properly, in a dirted tank. One of the bananas turned translucent and died early on, but since then it's been fine.

Last weekend I bought some plants for a different tank, and asked the manager (with whom we're on good terms) if he could toss a couple pond snails and a big ramshorn in. (I think I'm one of the few people who WANT the "pest" snails. ) I put the big ramshorn in the tank with the shrimps and the banana plant.

I don't know if it's coincidence or if it's somehow the snail's fault, but since then everyone's been going to town on the bananas! (You could say they're...bananas for bananas. :giggle The ramshorn can almost always be found on the bananas, and there are usually a couple shrimps on them, too. One by one, they're turning translucent and disappearing. The bananas never ended up looking any better since the day I planted the plant.

My questions:

1. Do you think this is caused by the ramshorn? Are they known for eating plants, and he's like..softening it up so the shrimps want to eat it, too?
2. Can a banana plant live without any bananas? If I take it out, I'll pull up a bunch of dirt, so I'd like to avoid removing it if possible, but if it's just going to die, I obviously don't want it in there.

Thanks for any info you have!

(PS. Sorry the picture is so blurry.)

 

Ramshorns are plant safe. So are shrimp. It seems more likely that the plant is less than healthy and the shrimp are picking at the dying bits.

 

Okay, that's what I thought. I've seen the shrimps eat dying parts of leaves before, but I know some snails aren't plant-safe, so I wasn't sure. I've never had one this big! He's a plain brown one, but kind of fun. Hopefully he'll get busy making me ramshorn babies.

Do you know if banana plants can grow with no bananas? I know they store nutrients in the tubers, but I'm not sure if they're necessary for survival.

 

I don't believe they need them. My bananas all fell off, then after a while it got to growing a new bunch.

I know ramshorn and Malaysian trumpet snails are plant safe, as well as some species of apple snails. Other species of apple snails and pond snails are not plant safe.

 

Good to know! I have snails breeding in all my tanks to feed my assassins, so I'll have to keep an eye on those pond snails.

Maybe this is all for the best then, if the shrimp eat the bad roots and new, healthy ones will grow in their place.