Digestive System Failure from Eating Plants?

Aug 16, 2009
1,318
0
0
SW Pennsylvania
#1
I've had about 2 or 3 fish die recently from what I believe are digestive system failures. Allow me to explain.
I have hornwort in both of my tanks. I also have molly fry (1 to 2 inches long) in each tank. The molly fry eat the dead hornwort pieces. I try to clean these out of the tank as much as possible, but I always miss a few. Each time they eat the dead plant, their stomach becomes deflated and I see them trying to poop out the dead plant. It's rather grotesque. They become very sick and then die with pieces of plant sticking out of their stomachs. I have never heard of fish dying from eating dead plants, but it's very upsetting, as I just lost my favorite molly. I really want to remove all hornwort from my tanks.