Floating Plants killing my fish?

I have to ask this, since as of tonight this has happened twice, and three of my fish have been lost in this manner.

I floated some horwort in my 29g, since so many different blogs/forums say how great it is for the aquarium. I just found one of my dwarf gourami and my Angel Fish tangled up in the hornwort, dead. I ended up having to scoop out all of the horwort along with the fish and flush them together.

Questions: Is hornwort/floating plants worth the risk? Why do my fish get tangled up and die in the floating plants? I would think they would avoid that situation, especially after the first Dwarf Gourami got caught up and died this past weekend in the floating fake plants. But perhaps I am anthropomorphising my fish.

Is this something that sometimes happens, or am I doomed to having odd things occur in my tank? I am beginning to wonder if I was actually was commiting involuntary fishicide in my ignorance, or if they are perhaps committing fishy suicide of some sort

Personally I have never had that happen and I do have floating hornwort. Does yours cover the entire top of your aquarium? I am sorry you lost your fish. Did you check your water parameters to see if something else caused their death and they floated into the hornwort? I hope this doesn't happen to you again.

All parameters of the water were all fine. The hornwort covered one corner of my 29g. I thought about them having died and then been caught up in the plants, but as tangled as they were, I think they may have just gotten caught in it. Then again, it may just be that my aquarium has a jinx on it or something...

you keep in mind in 1 thing that no fish can't die due to plants,moreover it's plant which provide them more shoothing atmosphere..

I doubt the hornwort is your problem. Most of my angelfish tanks are choked with the stuff, and it has never killed a fish. Is the water at about 82 degrees? Do you have nocturnal tankmates like plecos or Chinese algae eaters? Sometimes, fish that are active at night will suck the slime coat off "sleeping" fish, and the aquarist will never see it happen. Have you accidentally introduced things like soap, glass cleaner, furniture polish, perfume or toxic decorations into the aquarium? Have you introduced new fish recently. Some healthy looking fish can carry diseases that will affect angelfish or gouramis and no other fish. Please tell us more about the aquarium and its inhabitants.

The water stays at 81.5 degrees, I tried for 82 degrees but for some reason the temp would settle at either 83 or 81.5. So, for my balloon mollies sake, I went with the 81.5, they seemed much happier at the lower temp....No toxic items, I am obsessive about what I use in the aquarium, after some of the nightmare stories I read....

I do indeed have a Pleco in the aquarium, I did not realize he would assault my other fish in the night, must have missed that detail with all the other things I have read about all my fish and fish choices... He has grown quite a bit snce I got him(He is about 4 inches long now and about 1 1/2 inches wide), which may be why he is only now assaulting the others, he is bigger than them. I feed him algae wafers and sinking shrimp pellets every night along with my Pictus Cat and Cory, so I am surprised he would be hungry.

So I guess I should be taking the Pleco back to the store? To be honest, I only got him because the pet store said he would help keep the algae out of the tank and make my cleaning life a little easier. I would rather clean the algae than lose my beautiful fish...

Am going to take the Pleco back to the store this afternoon. I woke up this morning to find another Gourami dead and the last one is MIA in the tank. Gotta get to work, so I will have to hunt for it this afternoon.....

Have you checked for ammonia and nitrite? The pleco MAY be the culprit, but water parameters are also important. Please keep us posted.

Foud the last Dwarf Gourami, he was apparently hiding out in the ampitheater this morning, but is now swimming around the tank.

Water parameters as of just now:

Ammonia = 0
Nitrate = 20
Nitrite = 0
Total Hardness = 150
Chlorine = 0
Alkalinity = 150ish (the color is closer to the 150 mark than the 75 mark)
PH appears to be around 7.6 (Test strip is colored in between 7.2 and 7.8

Going to take the Pleco back to the store and then wait and see if the last Gourami dies. I figure that way, if the last one lives, it was the Pleco and not a disease, if it dies, it was probably a disease, and I will decide the next steps (???) then....

I took a picture so I could look closely at my last Dwarf Gourami and see if I could see any signs of disease and I cannot see any. Just in case, here are the two close ups I just took of him. Do any of you see an issue with him?

He appears healthy, and the water parameters look OK. Probably it is the pleco. If you get any new fish, be sure to use the drip acclimation technique when you introduce them into your aquarium.

No kidding... Plecos can be downright mean...

Especially on the kind of fish that you have...

Common Plecos seem to be worse...

I would recommend a little team of Cory Cats instead of plecos... How big is your tank though? Cory Cats like to have at least 4 in a group... 6 being better... They shoal and are cute as they can be!

i appreciate you miss angela brown..rightly you said..