What happened to my anarchis!!

Beth

Beth

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Apr 7, 2003
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Henderson, KY
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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?
 
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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
Fish munching?

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