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Help: Anubias nana falling apart

Ajm200

Member
Joined
19 Feb 2010
Messages
531
Location
London
I've got 8 anubias plants in my tank 3 of which are falling apart. The plants are in various parts of the tank and two are right next to other anubias that are perfectly fine so I'm baffled. If it was flow or co2 wouldn't the problem affect all plants one part of the tank rather than what I am seeing.

The problem plants all came from one source, they looked healthy, were huge and flowering 10 days ago.
The others came from various other fish shops and are smaller but show no signs of rotting.

550l
Filters 1x2400l/hr 2x1300l/h
Lighting: 4 x54w T5. 6 hr photoperiod. Each pair on 3.5hrs with 1 hr overlap
Ferts 10ml TPN+ (moving to EI in a few days)
Pressurised CO2 on 3hrs before lights/off 2 hrs before lights out.

Any idea what's going wrong?

Thanks
 
Need to better define "falling apart". Anubias are normally tough as nails. If there is a weakening of the structure the very first suspicion must be CO2 shortfall. Is the separated area soft and mushy? Is there browning or holes? Are there any other symptoms of failed CO2 in the tank such as GSA, Hair etc? Could the plants have simply been damaged during transit, or have they been in the tank for some time? Got pictures?

Cheers,

PS. It doesn't matter how another plant is coping right next door. Some specimens are weaker than others. The tank has to support the weakest of the specimens to ensure that all survive. That's just life.
 
The leaves are coming off one or two a day from each of the three plants. The bare rhizome where the leaves have been shed has broken in two on one plant but isn't soft or mushy.

No algae at all other than a few diatoms on the top spray bar which at the surface right next to the light and even that only has a very light dusting in a couple of places.

Drop checker is very pale green (and the fish gasp if it turned up). My config means that I can see tiny co2 bubbles. The water looks misty with them in all parts of the tank. The co2 comes out of a spraybar that rund right across the width of the tank approx halfway up. There are two other spraybars 8 inches above it that push any rising co2 bubbles forward and down.

Flow is good with all plants waving like they are in a strong breeze. (Added a third filter last week on your recommendation)

As all the bad plants are from one source maybe it be a problem with the plants rather than the config I suppose but the whole plants are affected so could it be diseased stock? The leaves that break away are dark green and look perfectly healthy. No discolouration, holes or damage.

Can't post pics as I only have an iPod for Internet for the next week or so. Sorry.

Did decrease the photoperiod last week in response to the first few diatoms. Also added tetras and barbs
 
Not sure where you bought the anubias, but I'm guessing they were grown emersed, so you should expect some die back as the plants adapt to submerged conditions.
 
Got them from MA. They were absolutely huge when I got them. Bigger than my hand. One is now down to just 5 stems. The others are fairing a little better but are still half the size they were.
 
Hmmm, a bit of a mystery because healthy looking leaves should not just fall off. I'm not familiar with the bacterial issue mentioned by Graeme as I've never had this happen. I would be more inclined to suspect an animal attack such as snail or scavenger rather than a bacterial attack. Transitioning anubias hardly ever have decay, especially when in a tank with good flow + CO2 and your lighting doesn't seem atrocious.

Can you remind us what other types of fauna you have in the tank, especially of the varmint variety? At the separation point it would be interesting to see what the nature of the fracture is. Smooth, jagged and so forth.

Cheers,
 
Fauna: 24 cardinal tetras, 6 Odessa barbs, 2 ottos, 3 tiny SAE, shrimp.

Will catch a stray leaf later and take a closer look.
 
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