Stem Rot (from roots up)

webcricket

webcricket

(So chill.) No wonder it's freezing
Mar 22, 2006
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Syracuse, NY
I'm having an issue with the stems on my lloydiella (creeping jenny) rotting from the gravel up. At first they lighten up and then turn brown. Then the leaves on the effected area turn brown and melt off. The top of the plant looks okay and has new growth. I've been cutting the rotted parts off. I know stem rot can be caused sometimes by too much nitrate, but I'm only at 5 ppm. I am also going through a salt/heat ich treatment (on day 14 with temp at 83* and salt of 2 tsp/gallon). Could this be from the salt and heat? It seems to be the only plant suffering and had been doing fine until I started with the salt/heat. If this is a sign of some other deficiency I want to address it before the other plants show signs (anacharis, pearl grass, windelov's fern, java fern).

Lighting is two screw-in 10 watt compact fluorescent bulbs. I dose Seachem products once weekly: flourish, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. Water change is 3.5 gallons weekly (twice weekly the past 2 weeks due to the ich treatment). Tank was planted on 7/25.
 
many of my stem plants were doing that, too, but it started under the gravel. I figured it was because the gravel was too heavy, and it was crushing the stems. It took a few weeks and lots of ferts before good root growth occured, after which most of the stem rot stopped.

Does that sound like what you're experiencing?
 
The rotted stems did all have good white root systems below the gravel and below the rot. I pulled those roots out along with the rotted stem figuring the rot would just extend to those roots anyway and foul the tank.
 
bigscout said:
Stems will rot and go free floating in search of more light if they do not have enough for that respective plant.
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What do you mean by that? Is that really an adaptation?
 
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You could be on to something about the light - this is a low light tank and everything I've read about lloydiella indicates it needs higher light. What bugs me is that it was doing wonderfully the first 5 weeks of being planted and showing no signs of needing more light.
 
hmm, I think my plants may have been crying out for more light, too, now that I think of it. But I have almost 3 wpg and no high light plants :huh:
 
What do you mean by that? Is that really an adaptation?
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Essentially yes, This is sometime sen in shaded areas of the tank, or when light levels are drastically reduced by some other means. Anachris is notorious for doing this in low loght situations. The top of the plant gets enough light to remain alive, but not enough to support the entire plant, so the bottom rots and the plant floats away to better places in the wild.



That being said, At 3 wpg I cannot see this being the case at all. I'd look for other nutrient defeciencies or problems in this case.
 
im not sure about this particular plant but my stem plants get trimmed once every 2 weeks min because they grow so fast and the way I trim them is cut the tops off .. throw the bottoms out and replant the tops ...

Makes the plant healthy and it only takes a lil while for them to reroot --
 
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