10 Gallon Tank My anubias - leaves rhizome melting??

I had a great find and got 7 anubias (6 nana and 1 coffefolia). Went out of town for literally 2 days, came back and noticed mold encasing the coffefolia rhizome. It's just kind of wedged between 2 rocks and I was doing a water change and tried to vacuum away the mold but leaves started coming off. I took it out and all but 3 leaves fell off. 1/2 of the rhizome was mush. I then noticed I had 2 little anubias at the top of a rock and one lower on the side that were fine. But any of the slightly larger ones had rotting rhizomes. After I rinsed them off and got rid of the mold and mushy parts, here's what 2 of them look like.



Just the rhizome part that wasn't mushy with no leaves!



My coffeefolia that had 10-15 leaves and was about 8" tall is now a sad 3 leafed mess.

Water parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, between 5-10 nitrate (using strips so had to guesstimate), temp 78.7. I use prime during water changes, add 1.25ml of flourish advanced 2x a week, and 1ml API CO2 every other day. The light is a Chinese made full-spectrum LED that is 10 watts, on 11 hours a day. Noticed some hair algae on one of the fake plats. I took it out, cleaned it and set the lights to just 7 hours per day now. It's near a window and gets some indirect sunlight on one side. Any advice? From one of the photos you can see I just put the rhizome back in a crevice in hopes maybe a leaf will grow.

In other news - my 2 Java Fern Windelov are doing great. In fact new tendrils are unrolling. Also the red dwarf lily is growing and sending up floating leaves every few days.

Any ideas or help appreciated.

 

Sounds like it could be ‘anubias rot’ - not much out there on exactly what causes it but sounds quite similar to what you have described.

 

Yes that is rot all right.
I am going to suggest it was the treatment of the plant in the last month as it moved around the country from one kind of water and temperature etc to another not anything you did or your particular water parameters. It may even have been raised out of water ( emersed) as opposed to under water ( immersed) .

I have read using a sharp clean razor blade to cut the rotten part off is one way of stopping it spreading up the rhizome?

 

Will is spread all over my tank? I noticed the smallest anubias seem perfectly fine. It was only the big (read - more expensive) ones that rotted away.

 

It has never spread in my tanks to the best of my knowledge it’s not like that. But it may progress up the rest of the rhizome on the plant that has it.

Just cut the damaged section out is all I have done.
And this is where a sharp clean razor blade is better than a pair of blunt scissors.

To be honest plants are not really my thing. Although I have Anubis in all tanks I don’t pull them out once a fortnight and inspect them etc. So what I am saying is if it was something that spread like wildfire if left alone it would have in my tanks but it has not been a problem. Like you I suspect it happens only on individual plants that are / were already suffering?

Recently I moved individual Anubis plants out of a fry tank where they had been heavily infested with black beard algae. These plants were an embarrassment from neglect. A small school of Siamese algae eaters in another tank cleaned the BB off within 24 hours . None of the rhizomes had any issues even if the plants had been suffering from neglect.

In a perverse sort of way I am proud to show the shocking state of the black beard on rim this plant pot. Within 24 hours 4 Siamese algae eaters had removed the BBA completely.

 

Well, it may not "spread" but I think it was on every plant. This morning I decided to check out the 2 plants that were unaffected and the ones I'd cut and cleaned up yesterday. Everything that was solid yesterday, was mush today. So one plant seemed completely unaffected. I took it out and did a diluted bleach dip for 2 min 30 seconds. I then took everything out of the tank (including the betta!) and did a 90% water change, scrubbed the rocks with tap-water and a new fingernail brush, thoroughly vacuumed the gravel, washed the marimo moss balls in tap water, and put it all back together. I put carbon in the secondary filter just in case but all seems well. Fingers crossed that one anubias will survive.

Before:



After:


At least I took some fantastic photos beforehand! ha ha

Will be buying only java fern next time I get to the LFSs & Petco/Petsmart.

 

I see your fish tank. It's good.
However, my experience tells me that the water quality GH in your fish tank should be very high. Because stones and sand will increase the GH of water, but plants don't like high GH.
Second point: are you sure your LED is a special lamp for plant aquarium? I see that it emits yellow light. It should be no higher than 4000K spectrum. This spectrum is suitable for land plants and not for underwater plants. This spectrum is easy to cause a flood of algae. This round lamp should be used for turtles, snakes, etc. I have never seen such lamps used for underwater plants.
Third, you said that your fish tank is close to the window, and the sunlight will also flood the algae. Fourth: algae have many colors. If it is black or gray, it means that your aquarium has high No3 and No4 (nitrate and phosphate). If algae is green, it means that your aquarium needs to reduce the light.
You see, we use such lamps, rectangular, with a spectrum of 6000-8000k
We like lovers of Plant Aquarium. Algae is our enemy. We must control it well. Don't let algae flood. I hope I can help you. I am a foreigner and use translation software. I don't know whether the translation is accurate.

 

Hello and thank you for your input.

I understand your point but from what I've read in this forum, if light from anywhere is getting into the aquarium, anubias and java fern should grow - even the LEDs built into the hood of cheap aquariums is enough for anubias & java ferns. I have very sensitive eyes and blue light literally causes me physical pain in my eyes so I stay away from anything that isn't at least slightly yellow.

Here's the lighting profile. It is a terrestrial plant light. I have it on 6 hours a day. I assume that plus the natural light is plenty for anubias, java fern, mini water lily, and marimo moss balls.




See the photo below - the window light is very indirect. My balcony is shaded and about 2m/6ft wide and then through the sliding glass door which has vertical blinds which are usually only slightly opened.


Unfortunately my iPhone camera is very good and makes it look lighter than it does to the naked eye! I really don't think the outside light is hurting anything or will contribute to algae. No algae yet anyway, and we're going on 3 weeks.

I hate to admit this but the rocks are actually VERY good fakes made of resin. So they are inert to the water. The substrate is a mixture of leftover inert Petco sand & gravel mixed with about 1/4 Seachem Fluorite Black (which is also supposed to be inert.) I have some seiryu stone but in my last aquarium it did make the KH and GH go up too high so it's now in a drawer.

Here are my tank parameters now - my tap water tests the same but with no Nitrate.

Ammonia: 0
KH 10d
GH 8d
pH 7.6
Nitrate/NO3 <10
Nitrite/NO2 0

Now that I've removed all the anubias, I'll be buying java ferns every couple of weeks and adding them in. And despite the lighting the dwarf red tiger lily is dark red and thriving. The rock blocks it from any light from the window.

If the KH or GH is too high, let me know as that may be the culprit.

 

Hello and thank you for your input.

I understand your point but from what I've read in this forum, if light from anywhere is getting into the aquarium, anubias and java fern should grow - even the LEDs built into the hood of cheap aquariums is enough for anubias & java ferns. I have very sensitive eyes and blue light literally causes me physical pain in my eyes so I stay away from anything that isn't at least slightly yellow.

Here's the lighting profile. It is a terrestrial plant light. I have it on 6 hours a day. I assume that plus the natural light is plenty for anubias, java fern, mini water lily, and marimo moss balls.

View attachment 842720

See the photo below - the window light is very indirect. My balcony is shaded and about 2m/6ft wide and then through the sliding glass door which has vertical blinds which are usually only slightly opened.
View attachment 842728
Unfortunately my iPhone camera is very good and makes it look lighter than it does to the naked eye! I really don't think the outside light is hurting anything or will contribute to algae. No algae yet anyway, and we're going on 3 weeks.

I hate to admit this but the rocks are actually VERY good fakes made of resin. So they are inert to the water. The substrate is a mixture of leftover inert Petco sand & gravel mixed with about 1/4 Seachem Fluorite Black (which is also supposed to be inert.) I have some seiryu stone but in my last aquarium it did make the KH and GH go up too high so it's now in a drawer.

Here are my tank parameters now - my tap water tests the same but with no Nitrate.

Ammonia: 0
KH 10d
GH 8d
pH 7.6
Nitrate/NO3 <10
Nitrite/NO2 0

Now that I've removed all the anubias, I'll be buying java ferns every couple of weeks and adding them in. And despite the lighting the dwarf red tiger lily is dark red and thriving. The rock blocks it from any light from the window.

If the KH or GH is too high, let me know as that may be the culprit.

If it helps cooperman, I’m struggling to see how this problem was caused by your setup or your water parameters. I have various species of anubias both in softer water than yours and in much harder water than yours. I don’t use ferts or any special lighting and they all grow fine. A little slower in the tank with the harder water perhaps, but they certainly haven’t rotted like yours did. I’d assume that there are plenty of others out there that can share similar experiences.

I honestly think you just picked up a bad batch. Hopefully your new java fern will be ok and your tank will get back to where you want it to be.

 

Ordered a plant pack. Got another anubias. It's HUGE. I just put some of the roots under a small rock and am hoping for the best. Fingers and toes crossed!!