Why Do My Tropical Community Fish Break The Plants?

I have a tank that has fancy guppies, mollies, tetra neons, platys, gourmanis and a mystery snail all happily getting along. Water levels and temperature is good. We have only real plants in the tank. I was wondering why and who is breaking the plants in half?

Why Do My Tropical Community Fish Break The Plants?
It is most likely the Gouramis or the Mollies. Both the Guppies and Neons really aren't big or strong enough to do much harm to plant stems, but Mollies and Gouramis certainly have the ability to snap some leaves off...



Soop Nazi



EDIT: Mystery Snails do not eat plants, so it was definitely not the snail. The fish don't even have to eat the plant to break it, all they would have to do would be swim quickly, and bump it too hard, snapping or bending the stem (which only the Gouramis or Mollies are big enough to do).
Reply:I just asked my boyfriend who has been in the fish industry all his life. He named 2 possibilities:

1.) the snail is the only one with the mouth to do that, and could be chewing on the plants

2.) said the plant could be dying
Reply:It is probably the gouramis. Although they are community fish that just means they won't eat each other. They probably love the plants as a fresh food source. The flakes are partially made up of dried up plants so they are just opting for the fresh stuff.



I went through the same thing for a while after finally giving up on live plants. I was totally against plastic plants but when you are pulling leaves off the filter every day, it gets a little old. I went to plastic and you can find some very good looking ones.