Need Some Advice

E

Erik With A K

AC Members
Feb 28, 2007
65
0
0
Connecticut
About a couple weeks ago I bought a couple bundles of Anubias and ever since they seem to be slowly dying off. There will be some holes developing and some leaves have even turned into skeletons.

I have had java fern in there for many months, they are doing fine. I have 2.5wpg in a 26g tank - so I'm thinking theres just not enough CO2 for all these plants.

I was considering using some Flourish Excel to see if this helps any...is this stuff safe for inverts?

I was also considering a manual CO2 system, such as fizz tabs... I saw it on F&S.

Does this sound like my problem or maybe something I'm overlooking?

Thanks.
 
What exactly do the holes look like? Sometimes fish and snails will nibble on leaves and create more jagged holes. If the fish or snails aren't suspect, are the holes larger or more like small pinholes?

As far as CO2 goes, I don't think java fern nor anubias need much in the way of CO2 injection. As far as I remember, they tend to be slow growers and at 2.5 wpg, I'm not too sure how much additional CO2 they'd need anyway. I wouldn't bother with CO2 quite yet.

Do you add anything else in the way of fertilizers, such as flourish? Do you have any idea what your water hardness is? I had some holes in the lower leaves of bacopa colorata before, and I started adding Flourish, and some additional potassium via Flourish Potassium and it seemed to get better, but I had a major snail infestation too, so I'm not too sure whether that was my problem or not.
 
I do have snails, I wouldn't call it out of control, but I do see them on them sometimes.

I don't add any ferts at all.

My water I think is slightly hard, but not too bad. I did take it to the LFS to get it tested, and it was well within the ok range.
 
Sometimes snails will eat the leaves of the plants. Are the holes more jagged or more circular looking? Are they in older growth (towards the bottom of the stem) ?

From what I've read, a potassium deficiency can result in small, pin-like holes in older growth on plants. If that's the case, my first move would be to start dosing something Flourish, or perhaps even Flourish and Flourish Potassium and see if that fixes your problem. If the holes seem more jagged, I'd probably be rather suspicious of the snails eating your Anubias for lunch...
 
Good question, they piggy backed on either the taiwan moss or the java fern when i bought it.

A couple turned into about 50.

Unless the fact of not knowing makes them indeed mystery snails... ;)
 
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