# Anubias plant rot



## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

My new Anubias plant (I'm pretty sure its barteri) got what looked like pics of Anubias rot. Sorry in a haste I cut off the brown soft part so no pics. Also my other Anubias plant shows no signs of disease.

1st I noticed about 3 leaves with stems floating around the tank. It looked like the stem rotted off at the rhizome. At 1st I assumed it was shock from the transplant but I did some research just in case, and all signs pointed to Anubias rot. It says the disease might spread to my other plant so I removed the infected one and put in in a jar to try and grow it emersed. 

It is sitting out of the water (theres a few inches of water at the bottom) in a clear jar with saran wrap covering it to help keep in humidity. 

The plant that is diseased came from PetSmart and they had the rhizome buried, I also had the rhizome buried for a day before a member here told me to keep it above gravel, after that I let both Anubis plants float until the driftwood I would attach them to was done soaking. 
The other plant came from one of the tube plant on the shelf from Petco so I'm a little surprised it happened to the one that has been underwater.

If the plant heals in its emmersed setup can I safely add it back to the tank or will the disease come back?
The diseased piece only has 2 leaves but they look completely healthy will that be enough to keep it alive?
Should I add anything? The water on the bottom is just water from the aquarium.

Thanks in advance
Drewet88

EDIT: I lied 1 of the leaves seems to have a few holes in it, looks like potassium deficiency but I cannot remember if it had this when I bought it. It had a lot of leaves when I bought it so I could have missed it. It is on an older leaf so I think the holes might be old.
Also the plants have been in the tank for less than a week.


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## HDBenson (Jan 26, 2015)

Did the rotting parts smell HORRIBLE, like death? And was it just the buried portion? Also, treat the affected part/area with H2O2. I've had good success with, literally, submerging the affected area in peroxide and letting it do its thing for a few minutes. Then upon removal, after washing your hands well, using a fresh soft/med bristle toothbrush to scrub away any soft dead tissue, then rinse in tap water and another H2O2 dip. Finally into isolation, again, with fresh, treated tap water.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

HDBenson said:


> Did the rotting parts smell HORRIBLE, like death? And was it just the buried portion? Also, treat the affected part/area with H2O2. I've had good success with, literally, submerging the affected area in peroxide and letting it do its thing for a few minutes. Then upon removal, after washing your hands well, using a fresh soft/med bristle toothbrush to scrub away any soft dead tissue, then rinse in tap water and another H2O2 dip. Finally into isolation, again, with fresh, treated tap water.


I didn't smell it but it was very soft and some parts broke off in my hand. It was part of the rhizome and a few of the roots but the stems and leaves that didn't fall off were healthy. I rem
oved the black parts with a clean xacto knife but I didn't dip it, is it to late to dip it? I'll change the water to treated tap water when I get home, it's currently aquarium water.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

UPDATE: Sorry the pic is horrible, I didn't expect the jar to fog up that much and I don't want to disturb the plant. You can kinda see the setup, its just a glass jar that I put a couple of inches of water in for humidity. Then to keep the rhizome out of the water I just used a block of egg crate that I had lying around. Covered the whole thing with saran wrap and then put it underneath a Repti-glo 35w t-8 that my turtles bask under. (Its the only place I had room.)
The leaves haven't wilted and I misted it yesterday, haven't misted it today yet since everything seems to be pretty humid inside of it, even has water accumulating on the inside of the saran wrap. 

The only part I wish I didn't do was put sand in the bottom, don't really know why I did it but I'm pretty sure its useless. 
I'll try and get better pics in a few days when I feel the plant has started recovering. I see no new growth but its only been 1 day.


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## cjipping (Jan 17, 2014)

When you have it, you know it. It is truly a rot. The rhizome will turn to a black mush and fall apart to your touch. In my cases the roots and leave stems were in fair condition, but didn't have anything left to remain attached to so they fell off then the rhizome was disturbed. 

Without intervention my entire Anubias plants would eventually die, without exception. I was able to save SOME of my plants. I cut it back hard, like 2-3 leaf nodes into what looks like healthy rhizome. The rot seems to infect the deeper parts of the rhizome, so keep cutting back till the entire rhizome looks healthy again. Anytime I did not cut back far enough it would come back over time. I did not have much luck with the peroxide dips, but Anubias is okay with it and it certainly doesn't hurt. I also found my plants had a better chance for recovery if I isolated them in cold/room temperature water without a heater. Their growth would slow to a stop, but they would eventually recover. Also, I found shrimp (cherries) seemed to help recovery. 

I did not try emmersed growth as I have not had much luck with it and healthy plants, nor did I have the appropriate set up available at the time. 

Keep an eye on any of your other Anubias plants. Exposure doesn't guarantee infection, but there is a high risk. There is not much reason for concern for it to spread to your other plants. I have not heard of it spreading nor did I have it spread on me to other species.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

Good to hear. The part of the rhizome that was affected did basically fall apart in my hand and the small amount that didn't I cut off with an xacto knife. I didn't do the peroxide dip but it is isolated to a room temp setup. 
Strange that cherries seemed to help, did they eat the dying part before it could spread to the rest of the plant?
I planned on getting RCS for my tank after I bought a TDS meter so that's just +1 for the RCS in my book.
I checked my other Anubias plant today again and it still seems strong and unaffected but I will keep checking it to make sure. 

The only other plant I have with a rhizome is an Amazon Sword plant and I haven't heard of it spreading to them but I'll watch it just to make sure.


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

Hopefully you don't have the dreaded anubias rot. 

It might just be in poor condition because it wasn't treated well in shipping or at the pet store. If so, it should recover if well cared for.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

randym said:


> Hopefully you don't have the dreaded anubias rot.
> 
> It might just be in poor condition because it wasn't treated well in shipping or at the pet store. If so, it should recover if well cared for.


I hope thats what it is. It was kept with the rhizome buried in the pet store I got it from and I also buried the rhizome for about a day before I learned that it shouldn't be buried. After that I just let the anubias plant float around in the tank. About 2 days later I noticed what I think was Anubias rot but I'm really hoping I was wrong and its just from shock. 

Its looking better now but I won't say the crisis is adverted until I see some type of new growth, which can be a while since I hear they grow pretty slow. I guess it will just stay in the jar by itself for a while, and hopefully it doesn't come back when I put it in the tank again. 

Question: When I get ready to switch it back to the aquarium should I spend a few days slowly adding water to the jar so it gets used to being underwater again?


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## HDBenson (Jan 26, 2015)

If it does have rhizome rot then when you pulled it you would be hit with a horrible smell, like rotting vegetation. There's no missing/mistaking the smell. I'm going to say that it was just buried for too long. I've had Anubias that were jammed too tightly into crevices that melted like that w/o the smell and the part that was crushed was the only part affected and recovery was not an issue. Just keep an eye on it. Once you think it's ready to go back just put it right in. If you keep it in high humidity then it will have no problem transitioning to submersion - no adjustment time needed.


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## cjipping (Jan 17, 2014)

Sorry for the confusion, the RCS didn't stop or even slow the infection. But on the recovery end, after I had cut back the rhizome, I found that the ones in room temp with the RCS came back soonest, (maybe 3-4 ish months) vs room temp with nothing at around 4-6 months. This could have been because of better nutrients from the RCS or because of them keeping them clean. No idea. Also note, that when I say it took a while to come back, it was months before I saw new growth, vs the normal 2-3 leaves per month I was getting at the time.

In the meantime, I simply purchased new plants to replace them in the tanks. They were really more of an experiment to just see if I could bring them back from the brink.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

HDBenson said:


> If it does have rhizome rot then when you pulled it you would be hit with a horrible smell, like rotting vegetation. There's no missing/mistaking the smell. I'm going to say that it was just buried for too long. I've had Anubias that were jammed too tightly into crevices that melted like that w/o the smell and the part that was crushed was the only part affected and recovery was not an issue. Just keep an eye on it. Once you think it's ready to go back just put it right in. If you keep it in high humidity then it will have no problem transitioning to submersion - no adjustment time needed.


Ok I didn't get hit with a horrible smell so hopefully its not rot. The rotting didn't start until it was floating but by then the damage was probably already done. Man now I wish I would've kept the piece I cut off to see if it would've grown into its own plant. 

I'm sure the humidity is pretty high but I don't have a humidity meter. I'll probably put it back when its driftwood is ready, so I'll just keep it in high humidity until the day I attach it. My driftwood should be ready soon; it sinks now without me needing to weigh it down, it barely leeches tannins into the water, and the white growth on it seems to be slowing down. 



cjipping said:


> Sorry for the confusion, the RCS didn't stop or even slow the infection. But on the recovery end, after I had cut back the rhizome, I found that the ones in room temp with the RCS came back soonest, (maybe 3-4 ish months) vs room temp with nothing at around 4-6 months. This could have been because of better nutrients from the RCS or because of them keeping them clean. No idea. Also note, that when I say it took a while to come back, it was months before I saw new growth, vs the normal 2-3 leaves per month I was getting at the time.
> 
> In the meantime, I simply purchased new plants to replace them in the tanks. They were really more of an experiment to just see if I could bring them back from the brink.


O ok I get it now. My guess would be a combo of the two, they kept it clean and gave it some nutrients. The only thing in with my anubias plant is 2 MTS that I accidentally scooped up with the sand. I could add some water, raise the plant up and add one of my many guppies to the water. I wouldn't feel right doing that though, guppies deserve more than a jar to swim in. 

At this point I'm just happy the plant seems to be handling this well. I do want to get more plants but right now I have a low light setup and the stores around me don't have to many low light plants. I'll probably order them online along with some RCS shortly.


Thanks again everyone
I don't know what I would do without these forums. Its weird that I choose reading through the forums more than I cut on my playstation now, I never thought I'd see that day.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

UPDATE: I lost this battle.....

I didn't do the peroxide dip after I cut off the rotting part, even though I could only see a green healthy rhizome that was firm to the touch.
Today the rest of the rhizome turned mushy (still no smell and its still green except for where the other leaf fell off) and it has been in a high humidity emmersed setup. I did the peroxide dip now but I'm sure its to late (down to 1 leaf) I will keep fighting until there is no plant left.

I'll most likely go back to the store I got the healthy one from and buy one of the plants they have already rooted to driftwood. 

Off topic I do like the emmersed setup idea, I'll probably try it again (with a healthy plant from start), I want to try and see if I can attach things to driftwood, rocks, etc. while emmersed. 

P.S. this switching to planted tanks is difficult, its sad to watch a plant slowly die.

EDIT: I forgot to say when I did the peroxide dip the rhizome foamed a lot. I'm guessing there was a ton of bacteria on/in it that I missed. I think I'll start dipping all my plants when I get them and then put them in isolation for a few days from now on.


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## HDBenson (Jan 26, 2015)

Be careful with peroxide(H2O2), treat it like bleach and dilute it. That could possibly be what happened to the remaining part. Some plants react rather adversely to H2O2.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

HDBenson said:


> Be careful with peroxide(H2O2), treat it like bleach and dilute it. That could possibly be what happened to the remaining part. Some plants react rather adversely to H2O2.


I did dilute it, not as much as I would've done bleach so maybe that's why it bubbled so much, I also rinsed it afterwards with some tap water. The plant is still alive at this point so hopefully it can bounce back. I saw some pics online of rhizomes coming back without any leaves so maybe mine will be OK since it still has 1...

Wishful thinking but I heard these plants are pretty hardy.


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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

IME, as long as the rhizome is healthy, it will come back.


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## Drewet88 (Dec 21, 2015)

Yes I think you might be right. The last leaf is yellowing (possibly from the peroxide dip) but on the other side of the rhizome the plant is either sending out a new stem or a root that is growing upwards. At least somethings growing haha. 

Seeing how resilient this plant is I'm still mad at myself for tossing the other half that I thought was dead. It probably would've made a comeback.


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