Anubias dying - why???

I bought several anubias from petsmart sometime in December I think. I bought a group of nana and 2 larger ones I don't recall the name of. The last big one to 'survive' had yellow leaves. I removed it tonight and the rhyzome was mushy, white and smelled literally like animal . It literally just came apart in my hands. Why are my anubias dying?? I give them seachem excel, flourish and iron (from a 'plant pack' seachem sells). I have a full spectrum light that I don't know the full specs of. The tank is a 10 gal with a betta, nerite snail and some ghost shrimp; plants are frogbit, hornwort and moss balls. Also dealing with cyanobacteria. It is possible they get too much light altho they are shaded somewhat by the hornwort. This dead got much more light than my nana. My last 2 nana are doing well and growing new leaves. I am by no means good with plants like I am with fish so I want to correct this before more anubias die.

 

Did you have the rhizome planted in the gravel or tied to a stone or driftwood?

 

Forgot to mention, some were allowed to float freely and others were tied to decor. It is a bare bottom tank

 

It is possible your hornwort shaded it too much.

 

I have done more looking online and apparently anubias is susceptible to this particular rot. I found posts on other forums with my problems: yellow leaves, mushy stalk, white and mushy rhyzome and that nasty smell. Makes me feel better than it might not have necessarily been my fault, but I also don't know how to tell to look for this when I'm buying plants.

 

No anubias grow best in the shade. I’m thinking it’s getting to much light and maybe a potassium deficiency.

How often do you change the water and how much do you change? Another thing may be the excel. If your getting Cyanobacteria the excel isn’t working. You may want to try apI co2 booster instead.

 

How often do you change the water and how much do you change? Another thing may be the excel. If your getting Cyanobacteria the excel isn’t working. You may want to try apI co2 booster instead.

I do a water change every week, around two gallons, gravel vac, etc. The cyano issue's main cause was likely my 12hr lighting which I cut back to 8 this week. The cyanobacteria isn't nearly as bad as it was before and is improving.

 

I have been growing plants for many years, and have grown these tube plants from PetSmart many times. The anubias you purchase at PetSmart is often grown above water (emersed) and must transition to submerged growth once you put it into your aquarium. Often times anubias struggles with this transition. In fact, over the past couple weeks I watched my anubias nana go through the same process you talked about. Doesn’t mean you’re necessarily doing something wrong, it might just mean you need to try again . I’ve found that about 1/3 of the anubias I buy from pet stores rots. Also, your anubias in that photo appears to be anubias congensis.
Or possible anubias frazerI now that I see that you said it was tall.

 

I hear ya but excel is made to kill that stuff. For your lighting put it on a 2 time timer. Do something like go on at 8am stay on till 12 off till 4 and on again till 8. That should kill your cyano.
Jeremy I had no idea that much rot. I’ve been lucky. But I’ve never bought from the chain stores. There is an anubias disease that causes all your anubias to rot. But I’ve allway thought they were some of the strongest plants.

 

WHY is this happening again???

I got several plants from aquatic arts in January. This one had a couple yellow leaves yesterday so I pulled it out to remove them and it shows all the signs that the petsmart anubias did, just not as badly. When some of the leaves came off and I saw the brown base, I knew that it had the same problem

This is NOT in the same tank. This one is in my 20 gallon with several other plants that are doing well and no algae issues.

 

This could be from the cold weather. May have gotten cold in shipping and a few leaves died. Time will tell on it. How did it look when you got it?

 

I had some issues with ordering tissue cultures from aquatic arts as well. For this reason I will never order plants from them again. Every single culture I ordered was dead upon arrival. I did email them and they were able to refund me though so you could try that. I have had the best lucky with the petco anubias, not petsmart. Have you tried petco? They also have a wider variety in my area. Have you tried an all in one fert? Try nicog thrive (on Amazon I believe). It works great for me and once my anubias is established and past that initial melt back stage, it takes off.

 

Other places with good plants are on eBay. Plantsfactory and toykuaquatic. I have had great results from both. I am awaiting a delivery now on some plants. Will let you see them when they come.

 

I also do sell submerged grown plants including anubias, message me if you’d like and I can hook you up with what you’re looking for if you want.

 

I’m just going to say that I’ve had the exact same thing happen, and in my case it was with a submerses growth plant from my LFS.

I never really got a diagnosis - I’m not sure if it was Anubias disease or if my water was too soft or what, but it killed my plant within days. My LFS thought maybe its rhizome had been packed too tightly in its container during shipment, and admitted they’d seen this before but didn’t know what it was.

I’m sorry I don’t have more to offer - I just wanted to say that I know how you feel and that this is a pretty frustrating situation.

 

I had some issues with ordering tissue cultures from aquatic arts as well. For this reason I will never order plants from them again. Every single culture I ordered was dead upon arrival. I did email them and they were able to refund me though so you could try that. I have had the best lucky with the petco anubias, not petsmart. Have you tried petco? They also have a wider variety in my area. Have you tried an all in one fert? Try nicog thrive (on Amazon I believe). It works great for me and once my anubias is established and past that initial melt back stage, it takes off.

I do use Thrive. The other anubias from aquatic arts is doing well, along with my other plants from them. I also have several baby anubias-on-lava rock from a local aquarist which is thriving in the same tank.

At this point, I just want to give up on buying anubias ever again. The plants look well when I buy them and then they quickly rot. It's a gamble on whether the plants will live or die.

 

I lost over half of my anubis to rot and its a pain to deal with it. The only thing you can do to deal with it is to cut of a big chunk of healthy tissue surrounding the rot to stop it from spreading. Its almost like a cancer.

 

Why are my Anubias nana dying in my one tank?

The plant is rotting at the stems where they come off the rhizome. I am not sure if the rhizome is dead. The roots look fine. The leaves just rot off one by one.
Could someone help?
Thanks.

Nick

 

Could you show a picture?

 

Here is some pictures

 

Yea so although in some cases anubias can grow buried in substrate it is rare and difficult to get right. If the rhizome is below the substrate it will kill the plant, try attaching it to an object or a flate rock on the substrate. I would dose some fertiliser after doing this so it still has a source of nutrients until it acclimatizes to its new position and established good roots

 

They should be attached not planted. The roots need to be free. Glue or tie to rocks, driftwood!

 

Hey! Thanks guys! I have glued all my Anubias to my clay pots! Thanks!

Do you think the living roots will survive? I don’t really see much of a rhizome on that one pic I attached, just roots :-/

Also, do crypts need to be above the substrate?

 

Good job and no problem. I hope so, maybe dose a bit of ferts to give a starting boost

 

Also, do crypts need to be above the substrate?

No, they need to be in it!

 

Also, do crypts need to be above the substrate?

They r fine in substrate

 

They should be attached not planted. The roots need to be free. Glue or tie to rocks, driftwood!

They do not need to be attached or glued exclusively. The plant can be planted but the rhizome should never be buried in the substrate. I successfully grow lots of different variety of anubias, and they are all rooted in substrate, rhizome above.

In your photo the rhizome appears buried in the substrate.

 

Hey! Thanks guys! I have glued all my Anubias to my clay pots! Thanks!

Do you think the living roots will survive? I don’t really see much of a rhizome on that one pic I attached, just roots :-/

Anubius draw their nutrients from the water column unlike swords that draw theirs from the soil. Anubias need additional liquid fertilizer while swords use root tabs. As stated above they don’t HAVE to be glued. You can wedge them in the cracks in driftwood or between rocks, anything that will anchor it down.