Know about rotting Anubias?

[Orchid]

I recently ordered some anubias bangkok, what azgardens sent me was barteri. Now they are all rotting. At first they looked gorgeous, all four of them have begun to rot away, one is already gone, fell apart in my hands. The rhizomes and stems are turning grey and fungusy and smell bad. I scraped off all the soft, bad parts of the plants and replanted them, but should I be doing something else to protect them from further infection?

Has anyone heard of anubias rhizomes doing this? It is a brand new tank with Flourite gravel. There are other, older anubias sp in there and so far they seem O.K. (knock on wood!!!) The only fish in there are two otto cats. Temp is 79 degrees.

 

[farm41]

Did you plant the anubias? How long have you had it? Anubias has a rhizome that cannot be covered,or it will rot, just the roots can be planted.

I attach mine to a piece of wood and let them grow their roots into the substrate, but the rhizome is a couple inches of the bottom.

 

[tjudy]

Sorry to hear about your Anubias. It is possible that the plants were propagated emergently. Occasionally those that are grown that way do not take to submersion very well. More frequently they will do just fine, but the leaves that grow submerged are very different that those that grow emerged.

I have a couple plants I bought as A. lanceolata that looked like that species when I bought them, but the leaves that have grown submergently are very small... but still lance shaped! It basically looks like a nana with narrow leaves.

What is the pH in your tank? I set up a tank with flourite and had the pH crash from 7.6 to 6.2 almost over night. Occasionally anubias can experience a pH shock... even more of a chance of that if the plants were emmergently grown.

 

[Orchid]

Those four anubias have all rotted away. It was the rhizome and stems that were rotting. The roots and the leaves pretty much looked healthy, even when the rhizome was grey mush. I also ordered four coffeefolia and an afzelli and they seem fine so far (knock on wood!). These definately were not an anubias bangkok, which is what I ordered and was charged for, I am pretty sure they were a barteri, they look exactly like the barteri I already have in that tank.

 

[tjudy]

Anubias barterii is a highly variable species. It includes many of the subspecies that are available: barterii, nana, caladifolia, and others. Cofeefolia is thought to be a propagated hybrid by many. I have noticed that many anubias have slightly different growth patterns under different aquarium conditions. It is possible for a progagator to grow one of the barterii types under some unique condition, and then give it a name.