What happened to my anarchis!!

[Beth]

I bought a bunch of anarchis about a month ago and it was doing great....growing like crazy and pearling all over the place...very fun to watch. Well, three days ago, I woke up to find that the leaves had all gone pale and thin and not a pearl in sight. The next day all the leaves had either fallen off overnight or my fish had munched them away....literally bare stems swaying in the water!

I do not inject CO2. I add fert to the water and use root tabs.

What could have happened?

[Ray Pollett]

What is your tank set up? What Kind of Lights?

Ray

[Beth]

29 gallon
small gravel/laterite mix substrate
55 watts of CF lighting


What else do you need to know? I'd be glad to give any info you need.

[Beth]

Oh, yeah, I have lots of other plants in the tank and they seem to be doing okay. At least none has shown any drastic downhill changes like my anarchis. Java fern, amazon swords, sunset hygro(less than a week in my tank), red rotala (less than a week...), ludwigia repens, bacopa, water wisteria, dwarf hairgrass, jungle vals, cabomba, apon. (Wal-mart bulbs).

[Ray Pollett]

Sorry Beth, I can not tell you what happened to the Anacharis. Hopefully some one else will see something I do not.

Ray

[Skittyfish]

I can't grow it either! I always seem to kill it off in a week or so.

[Beth]

There are a few signs of new growth on some of the stems today. Perhaps some of it will survive. I guess it's no big loss if not as it's not a very expensive plant but it just bugs me that I'll have to find something else to fill in the empty spot. I'd love to find a bunch of plants that I can plant and *keep* in one spot. I don't mind a bit of pruning and routine maintenance but it seems that my aquarium looks so different from one month to another due to rapid plant changes (growth and die-off). Thank heavens for my java fern! I suppose that's all part of keeping live plants...at least the positives far outweigh the negatives.

[anonapersona]

What sort of fish do you have in there? barbs? goldfish? any other plant eaters?

[Beth]

danios, lemon tetras, cories, ottos, and a pair of kribensis

I know the kribs have been hitting the salad bar... they aren't shy about yanking off a mouthful while I watch. The thing is, while the plants were growing like crazy, the fish didn't really bother them. I only noticed the fish heavily eating them *after* they had stopped growing and turned sickly looking.

[wetmanNY]

Beth noted: The thing is, while the plants were growing like crazy, the fish didn't really bother them. I only noticed the fish heavily eating them *after* they had stopped growing and turned sickly looking. Phenols and other bitter chemicals have to bleed away before fish will eat greens. This can even be true with spinach!

I find Anacharis is a high-light-demanding plant. It also seems to like harder water than I'm willing to give it. Never was very successful for me over the years...

[veerapaneni]

Dont worry . The same thing happened to me. I removed all the decaying leaves and left the stems in the aquarium. After couple of days, New leaves started appearing and they are doing fine now.

[Beth]

Ahhhh...I see.

There is new growth showing. Let's see if I can stand to look at all those raggedy stems until I can prune them out!

[djlen]

I got a bunch of Crypt. Wendti a while back, put them in 3 different tanks. All were doing well, but the best by far, growth wise were the ones I had in my hospital tank(10 gal.).
Three days ago they melted down......no idea why....just completely gone. Hopefully they will come back later. Mean while the others are doing great......go figure.
I've learned that the slightest change in conditions, can sometimes play havoc with plants. So, I bring 'em home and plant 'em. If they do well I keep them trimmed and watch them perform. If they don't grow worth a crap I chuck them and go with what works for me. There's just too many varieties out there to fret over one type.
I'd say give them some time and if you don't see any results....chuck 'em Beth.
Len

[dethjam316]

i had anacharis like that. even in intense light, it has never really grown the way it did for the first couple months i had it. i always assumed it was the plant using up it's store of whatever "special" ferts the LFS was using.