# Anubias leaves developing holes



## Waqar (28 Feb 2019)

Hi all,

I have a well established anubias that was very healthy (1 leaf every week. All of a sudden its leaves have started developing holes. The leaves first develop yellow spots and then holes develop in those spots. 

The details are:

Tank - 24 inches x 12 x 15 inches
Light - T8
Substrate - Fluval stratum
Macro dosing using a portion of EI 1-2 times
Micro dosing once a week
Daily Ferropol 24
Daily Easy Carbo

Advice would be really appreciated.


----------



## Mihai Varban (5 Mar 2019)

Easy Carbo has damaged my anubias in the past. But not in the same way. My leaves just darkened at the stem and got diformed. You sound like you have a deficiency but you dose EI so it shouldn't be. Could be the sign of toxicity. Are you seeing dark lines in your fast growing plants? This is visible as a tiger stripe pattern on amazon frogbit leaves of dark patches on leaves and stems. If so, plants are storing excess metals, usually iron.


----------



## Oldguy (5 Mar 2019)

What is the growth like on your other plants? Anubias leaves appear to be supporting algal growth, could the holing be due to localized areas which can not photosynthesize?  Anubias are greedy feeders when they get going, I aim for iron at 0.1ppm and other traces in proportion (mix my own). Never had problems with 1.5% Glutaraldehyde and anubias. I dose 8ml to approx 60 imp gals, but tank is heavily planted (also run CO2 but not as heavy as others) and a large trickle filter which must be out-gassing CO2, hence glutaraldehyde supplement. My money is on Fe and traces being low.


----------



## sciencefiction (5 Mar 2019)

Seems like some sort of necrotic patches. Do you have a full tank shot?


----------



## X3NiTH (6 Mar 2019)

I don't want to be alarmist but there is the possibility that they are being attacked by burrowing nematodes causing the leaf destruction (I have experience of this, wish I didn't but hey ho). Having read a lot of papers on this topic a highly likely vector for infection of burrowing nematodes is Ludwigia Repens, it is a host for Radolphus Similis. If your Anubias were healthy before you added this to your tank (I can see it in front of your Anubias) and the downhill has been since then, then I'm afraid the remedial action is not pretty.

Here is a picture of the remnants of an Anubias walled tank I had, this is pretty much all emergent growth, the submerged plants faced complete destruction, yellowing and skeletonised foliage. Anubiageddon!

View attachment 43203032891_726146fd15_o.jpg

I didn't need a microscope to find an adult nematode.





This is a classic symptom of foliar damage from burrowing nematode in emergent growth, this leaf was tucked between two other leaves that had water flow from the tank running over them so this leaf received drips from the two sides but was dry in the middle.

View attachment 43153490182_ef26b000d8_o.jpg

The first and last images are very high resolution so zoom away. I've never posted these here before, if peeps think this horror story is worth documenting in its own post I'm willing to do that.


----------



## Oldguy (6 Mar 2019)

X3NiTH said:


> horror story is worth documenting


Yes I think that this is worth more discussion. Did a quick internet search of Radolphus Similis. No mention of it in aquatic plants, but things are only there if people are looking. A possible control that was flagged up was drowning, ie flooding of contaminate land, but this was in relation to banana production.


----------



## zozo (6 Mar 2019)

Oldguy said:


> No mention of it in aquatic plants


Anubias barteri
http://journals.fcla.edu/nematropica/article/viewFile/69588/67248

Ipomoea aquatic
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095311914610030

And they do not seem to be alone, 
*Plant Parasitic Nematodes in Subtropical and Tropical Agriculture, 3rd Edition*
Page 38


----------



## Oldguy (6 Mar 2019)

Looks like we will have to start boiling our water plants for an hour or two.


----------



## X3NiTH (6 Mar 2019)

Oldguy said:


> Looks like we will have to start boiling our water plants for an hour or two.



To be precise the remedial action is 57'C for 5-10 minutes (depending on the size of the tissue). 

The tray above received that and looked like they survived but the thermal shock turned them all to mush within 24hrs except for the largest rhizome on the top left, it was left leafless and the rhizome survived, I stuck it in a tray on the window shelf in the bathroom with some water and it did grow new leaves but then I forgot about it for a few weeks and forgot to top up the water and found it desiccated, wouldn't have risked putting it back in a tank. I also treated a few Buce this way that were in this tank also, they didn't survive.


----------



## rebel (7 Mar 2019)

Wow that's worth another thread for in-depth discussion!!!!

Can't these nematodes be gone with Levemisole or similar. Surely the stringy B@#$%@ can be killed with an antibiotic?


----------



## zozo (7 Mar 2019)

rebel said:


> Can't these nematodes be gone with Levemisole or similar. Surely the stringy B@#$%@ can be killed with an antibiotic?


Regarding the links posted above there is no remedi against it. Other then hygene and awareness not to introduce them. If diagnosed in very early stage removing inffected tissue can be succesfull. But that is info regarding emersed agriculture.. Since they live inside the plant i'm not sure if the plant takes up dewormers into their tissue. If that would be so, than it probably should work in terrestrial plants since they take it up via their roots if watered. But it probably doesnt work like that.

It seems that Anthurium rather is common host for this parasite among the house plants (next to Banana). Thus people with paludarium setups planning anthurium should carefully inspect the plant before planting.


----------



## X3NiTH (7 Mar 2019)

I have the paper for Anthuriums and BN saved, it was one of the first in depth papers I had a look at when my suspicions about Burrowing Nematodes was raised, the root damage was consistent with what I was seeing in the Anubias.

My infection vector was either the Coffeefolia seen above (was a rescue and had leaf junction rhizome damage when bought) or cross contamination from Ludwigia Repens I planted in another tank (my Buce tank) that I couldn't get to thrive no matter what I did, it would grow then obliterate.

Giving more thought to this there is the possibility that my issue with Buce root health could still be down BNs, I have no way to confirm this as I don't have a microscope (needs to be a decent scope with high magnification). I know how to collect and prepare a sample for examination but not the means to examine the sample itself. Really wished I'd saved for one that I could use the Nikon 800E on, last microscope I owned I was about 6.


----------

