uprooting live plants?

Question

i have 3 medium sized angels and 2 red dwarf gouramis, and im finding plants floating and split in half i see the angels try to nip the plants off , any suggestions so that they stay away from my plants? i have had the angels for a week now and i love emm , but also like the look of the live plant in the aquarium.
heres a pic of the aquarium coz i dont know the names of the plants , you can zoom in the pic

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l102/alienmind/IMG_1818.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l102/alienmind/IMG_1815.jpg

thanks for your time

forgot to mention that i have a leopard pleco but he stays away from plants apart from some gentle cleaning the other fish i have are too small to do this

Thanks MM And G for the answers

yes its hornwort but its not the one thats being uprooted to hornwort has haf of it under the
gravel the uprooted plants are all like this one :

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l102/alienmind/Untitled-1copy.jpg

sorry but thats the best i could take with no
flash do you think if i put a pebble on it , it will be safer ? plus you have a point mm i find them ussualy in mornings but during the day that the angels try nipping them.

Answer 1

The plant that the angels were near in the first pic appears to be hornwort. It doesn't root well at all and is quite easy for the fish to pull up even if they are just nipping leaves. Are you finding the plants floating more in the morning? If so it could be the pleco as he swims areound them at night and tries to find algae and parts of the plant he can eat. The only solution for the hornwort would be to plant it in a pot with a firm substrate. The other solution I can offer is to buy strictly rooted plants such as swords, anibias and aponogentons. Those grow far more roots and are difficult for the fosh to pull up.

MM

Answer 2

i think its camboba -- camboba is tasty to many fish (angels and guppies and probably gouramis) and breaks easily. many people get aggrivated with camboba because it breaks and clogs up the filter.

hornwort would be a second guess -- it doesn't root so fish would pull it up easily.

i was trying to find comparison pictures and i can't -- camboba is a lot more feathery and delicate looking than hornwort. camboba is a deeper green like pine trees.

if you give it a iron suppliment to either of them(a fertilizer marked 0-0-3 or similar) you will be swimming in it in no time and your fish will have all the greens they want.

there is no way to keep fish from eating plants they like -- you can try giving them another plant like anacharis -- fish love that stuff and will usually chose it over anything else in your tank.