New tank-Major anubias melt!

Hey everyone,

This is my first plant related post on the forum. 2 weeks ago, I started up a 29 gallon planted tank. Everything has been going great in the tank except for my $130 worth of anubias. The only plants I put in the tank were varying species of anubias, from petite all the way to mother pots of broad leaf. They were all potted that I purchased from buceplant, who I love and have purchased from many times before. When I set the tank up, my plants were delivered a few hours before I got home from work. They sat outside in around 60 degree weather, which I never had issues with anubias before. I left them in the bag until it was time to plant. Then I carefully pulled the cotton out from around all the roots (mind you I purchased 25 individual anubias plants) and put them in bowls of water while I planted. Between planting and filling the tank, I will admit the roots got pretty dry on the ones I planted first, but anubias is a terrestrial/submersed plant so I didnt think that would hurt it much. Maybe an hour at the most it was out in the air. All of them were superglued/tied to rocks. Fast forward to today, and I've been pulling handfuls of rotted leaves and some completely rotted rhizomes out daily. And it has a foul smell. Others that are still holding on have a fungus growing on them. Now what worries me is on planted tank forum I read about some people going on about a "anubias disease" that can be transmitted from plant to plant through the water. They said to try and remove all the affected rhizomes but that the disease is pretty aggressive and almost impossible to fight. Saying it took out entire aquascape and hundreds of dollars in anubias. So now I'm very worried. Plan of action (and the only thing I can do really) is wait until saturday to do my water change. Shut the filters off, pull every single plant and try my best to remove the rotted rhizomes and leaves, do a major vacuum and water change, and try to replant what I can. I have a feeling I will lose over 50% of my leaves and plants, leaving my once gorgeous lush anubias forest looking barren ):. I'm also upset that I can't go out and buy more, because I'm worried about what's already there attacking any new plants. Does anyone have any experience with this, or has heard about it? I'm wondering if there's any truth behind it, or of my anubias is just melting from shipping then planting a new tank. I've never once had an issue with anubias, it's actually my favorite because of how natural and easy to keep it is.

 

for the melting leaves were the anubias grown emersed?

 

for the melting leaves were the anubias grown emersed?

Considering they were potted, I would very much assume they were grown submerged. I believe none of buceplants plant stock are grown outside of the water.


Just an edit: I have also emailed buceplants support team asking if they have had any issue with their anubias stock, I will post their response when I get one for future readers.

 

Yes I’ve read about it here. No one knows what starts it or where it originated. Makes me wonder if it could be just a mix of anubias that causes it. Could you put up some pics of what’s going on and a list of what you bought. I too keep many anubias also my favorites. I now qt any I get to make sure they’re healthy. I know I’ve had them out of water for long periods with no problem. I’ve heard the disease will wipe out all anubias. So if you got it from the supplier there stock would also be affected. That’s why I’m wondering if it could be 2 different types in the same tank that causes it.

 

Yes I’ve read about it here. No one knows what starts it or where it originated. Makes me wonder if it could be just a mix of anubias that causes it. Could you put up some pics of what’s going on and a list of what you bought. I too keep many anubias also my favorites. I now qt any I get to make sure they’re healthy. I know I’ve had them out of water for long periods with no problem. I’ve heard the disease will wipe out all anubias. So if you got it from the supplier there stock would also be affected. That’s why I’m wondering if it could be 2 different types in the same tank that causes it.

Well, it seems all hope is lost at this point. A buce rep emailed be back not even 30 minutes after I emailed them--love their customer service as a side note. They gave me $20 my next order, but I don't think I want to spend any more money until I figure out how far this is going to go. My last resort I suppose if they all die is to either go plantless and try again months from now, or try out some nice java fern mats. It's pretty much along the lines of every thread I've read about this anubias rot-melting leaves, white cloudy fungus, completely soft and mushy rhizomes, and a foul odor. Figures crossed it doesn't spread any further after I do a major removal in a few days, I also put one of the plants I couldnt fit originally into a different tank with a bunch of old healthy anubias so I'm very worried it will wipe out a second tank as well. I've always had wonderful luck from the petsmart topfin anubias actually, but it's expensive and very small plants. It's such a shame. Heres a picture just of how much anubias I originally had, I don't have any of the rot as of right now.

Also heres what the buceplant rep had to say---

Thank you for reaching out to us. From my understanding, anubias root rot has no cure. It happens randomly and without warning. We have experienced anubias rot at the warehouse before, but we section off each species (ie. anubias petite in one, coffeefolia in another, no shared water). We do this not only for ease of inventory but to stop the potential spread of diseases such as anubias root rot.

The most common reason our anubias perish is because they are kept emersed and due to the dry climate in southern California, if the lid is not put on properly, the plants will suffer. This usually happens towards the end of our batches.

If you are concerned about your anubias contracting a potential illness, I would advise to dip any plants you receive with potassium permanganate or bleach dilution prior to introducing the plants to your aquarium.

 

Again if there not experiencing it now than I still wonder if it could be a mix of 2. As to your other tank I would not cross contaminate it by mixing equipment or tools in both tanks. Also clean hands before going to that tank. I’d clean on different days. As to the potassium permaganate coral bandit has a thread on how to use it. It is an interesting substance and it kills lots of bad things in the tank. Read the thread before attempting to do it. Please pictures when you can.

 

Again if there not experiencing it now than I still wonder if it could be a mix of 2. As to your other tank I would not cross contaminate it by mixing equipment or tools in both tanks. Also clean hands before going to that tank. I’d clean on different days. As to the potassium permaganate coral bandit has a thread on how to use it. It is an interesting substance and it kills lots of bad things in the tank. Read the thread before attempting to do it. Please pictures when you can.

It seems they experience it now and then on their stock. I guess no one knows where/how it comes about. I always run scalding hot water through my siphon in between use on any of my 3 tanks. My 3rd tank which has anubias strictly from petsmart and anubias from buce that I bought in 2017 is unaffected. I didnt put the anubias from this batch into my second tank after I noticed the rot, it went into the tank before I even filled the new one. It just wouldn't fit when I was done planting so I threw it into my killifish tank. It still experienced some fungus, which I removed and stuck it back into the tank in question, although it was doing much better in the unaffected tank than the plants in the affected tank. Fingers crossed having it in with healthy anubias didnt spread it. I'll post pictures of the carnage when I remove everything during this weekends water change. I wonder if this would be contagious to java fern? Since it has a rhizome as well...

 

Just an update.. .during my water change a few days ago I removed every single plant and trimmed whatever dead leaves/rotted rhizomes were there. Pulled handfuls of stinking rotted plants out, but lost less than I had originally thought. Some of the plants had zero fungus on them, even a few with some new leaves sprouting. I decided since the tank is a few weeks mature (meaning I've had the old filter seeding the new one for almost a month) it was a good time to turn on the UV sterilizer. Hopefully whatever pathogen is taking out the anubias will be fried by the UV. I'll post another update after next weeks water change to let you all know if the pathogen is progressing, or if I caught enough of it to recover the rest of my plants. No rot spreading in the other tank that I dropped one of the infected plants in (then removed after I realized what was going on).

 

I totally forgot in the chaos to get pictures of the fungus. Really just looks like fluffy cloudy fungus that grows on new driftwood when first submerged. But I can show side by sides of how much anubias has been lost since initially planting and filling the tank to a few days ago (looks blackwater atm since the driftwood is still leeching tannins)

 

Another update, about two weeks since I did the first major removal of rotted plants. Since then, I've had to toss a few more plants but it seems the infection stopped somewhere along the line. The only original plants remaining are two large anubias barteris (were sold as a mother plant) and my anubias nana petite which seemed to have some type of immunity to the fungus (it attacked some portions of the nana but it was able to fight it off enough to salvage 90% of the rhizomes and plant growth). As for the other tank that I accidentally stuck an infected plant in, I had some leaf die off which was either coicincendtal timing with this whole ordeal or the fungus attacked my anubias but they were strong enough to keep it from infecting the rhizome. Either way, the fungus was very aggressive but did not manage to completely kill off all my plants and didnt completely infect another tank.