# Amazon Sword Disease?



## SamandAnne (Feb 24, 2010)

I have two different amazon swords that are getting a brown/green hairy growth on them that seems like a fungus to me. All the hairs originate from one point and fan out to make a bushy thing about 1/4" in length. It seems to be growing INSIDE the leaf and not the surface. I searched the web but haven't found anything so far. I pulled off what I saw a couple weeks ago, but they are back again now. The other plants in my tank aren't affected.

I have a 30 gallon with Excel. I had a bulb go out for awhile (it was on when this first showed up, though) and just replaced it with a 96W 6700K/10K PC combo. I just today started fertilizing with a potash/iron fertilizer and was planning on looking for a root tab without copper soon (have shrimp). They are in a EcoSubstrate/Sand combo for substrate.

I've had some leaf die-off and am just starting the ferts. I just read somewhere today to keep the root crown above substrate level, so I need to go in and raise them a bit to do that.

I'm concerned b/c this stuff seems to be growing inside the leaf and spreading. 

Any ideas what this is? I picked off the big ones so I couldn't get a pic. I have one sword with only three, very long, large leaves, and one of the leaves seem completely covered, and I'm hoping not to lose the plants.


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## SamandAnne (Feb 24, 2010)

*Photos*

Unfortunately, it came back strong :icon_frow ...algae? fungus? I have a couple photos now since it came back. It is only on the Amazons, and on the leaves that were dying off due to transplant and lack of fertilizer (starting to remedy that now). On the big-leafed Amazon I have -- the one leaf without die-off does not have these, but the other three big leaves do. On the smaller, bushier Amazon (3 plants), the one plant without die-off does not have these, and the 2 plants with die-off leaves do (though the new leaves on those plants do NOT have it). Any ideas what this is and what I can do? I have shrimp so I'm a little limited in terms of meds/treatments. Thanks for the help.


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## customdrumfinishes (Apr 4, 2008)

looks like black beard algae to me


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

LOL... yes.. it is a disease.... algae... LIkely BBA like posted above. 

Likely caused by not enough co2 or too much light.


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## SamandAnne (Feb 24, 2010)

Thanks! I looked up the BBA and yes, that looks like it. :icon_frow I'm thinking of dosing Excel at 2x-3x to remedy, per this post: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/algae/20172-excel-treatment-bba-experiences.html I trimmed the infected leaves off except for the one plant that would only have one leaf left if I did so...if it comes to it, I'll trim those leaves, too.

I just replaced a failing light bulb, so I'm running at 96W of a 6700K/10K combo bulb now for 30 gallons, so I may have too much light? I have Amazons, dwarf baby tears, java moss, and a broad-leafed plant and a frilly-leaved plant (that's a technical term)--I have no idea what those last two are! I'm planning on trying the excel to remedy the CO2 temporarily. Thinking of buying a yeast CO2 gadget from craigslist for longterm CO2.

Thanks very much for the ID. I couldn't figure out what that was!


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Don't OD the tank with Excel unless there are no fish or other fauna in there. It will kill them faster then co2 I promise. If you want to get rid of it, first cut back on light intensity if you can and also the photo period. You can cut out the effected areas. The best way to treat with Excel is to turn off all filters or other water moving devices and spot treat with a syringe or other device you can get good aim with. Leave the water movement off for an hour then turn on again. In a day or two it will turn pink then die off. 

But if you don't want it to come back less light is the key. Swords don't need a ton anyway in most cases.


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## Birds'nBunny (Sep 3, 2008)

Please be careful with the Excel. My experience is that overdosing it can kill shrimp. However, if the only shrimp you have are Amanos they should be fine. I've always found Amanos to be extremely hardy. 

Instead of OD'ing the entire tank with Excel, you might want to try spot-treating just the BBA. I've never had any luck with it but lots of people say it works well. 

BTW, I keep Tiger Shrimps, Amanos, Cherries, and Wood Shrimps in tanks that receive daily doses of fertilizers with copper in them. Everyone seems to be doing fine : )


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Birds'nBunny said:


> Please be careful with the Excel. My experience is that overdosing it can kill shrimp. However, if the only shrimp you have are Amanos they should be fine. I've always found Amanos to be extremely hardy.
> 
> Instead of OD'ing the entire tank with Excel, you might want to try spot-treating just the BBA. I've never had any luck with it but lots of people say it works well.
> 
> BTW, I keep Tiger Shrimps, Amanos, Cherries, and Wood Shrimps in tanks that receive daily doses of fertilizers with copper in them. Everyone seems to be doing fine : )


Did you read my post? I think you got ninja'd!


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## SamandAnne (Feb 24, 2010)

Thanks...I am trying to spot treat or target with the excel...I'm also reducing the photo period to 8 hours with the 96W (can't change the whole light as easily as the photoperiod!). 

So far, no difference in 48 hours. 

I trimmed all the leaves that had it except:

1 plant would only have one or zero leaves left...right now it has 4 (3 major infested, 1 minor infested).
1 plant has minor infestation and wouldn't have many leaves left either.
The other plants I trimmed off infested leaves.

Thanks for the info about the shrimp. Yes, I have only Amanos. I was actually wondering what ferts to use because of trying to avoid copper. I started with a potash/iron combination. Sounds like I can try something more comprehensive, though -- they all seemed to have copper.

Thanks!


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

ok. my 10 cents (2 cents are worthless nowadays)

nothing to do with light. bba's main cause is co2 fluctuation. large water changes in a low tech setup can do it.

personally i love to overdose with excel. i do a 50% water change. while the tank is half full, for your tank, i would dose 30ml of excel. give it about 5 to 10 minutes and refill the tank. for that 5-10 minutes the recommended excel would be about 4 times the recommended dose. it will shock the heck out of the algae and tommorrow it'll all turn red. i do it everytime i have an algae breakout. never a problem.

and yes copper is toxic to shrimp... in excess. they actually need SOME copper. you'll be fine dosing ferts as they are recommended. if you look at the ingredients in liquid ferts like seachems flourish (http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Flourish.html) you will notice that it also has chlorine in it. thats always a no-no in aquariums.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I would trim off any leaves that are damaged. You are basically making the plants work harder than they need to and all the nutrients are getting leaked out through the holey leaves. Even if you end up with one or two good leaves, you'll have a healthier plant.

Also, don't waste your money on yeast co2 from craigslist. You can make your own with a 2 liter, a yeast package, sugar, water, check valve (very important!) and airline tubing. It'll cost you under $10. Here is a link. http://fish.cecolts.com/pics/co2.html

There are more examples, but this is what I started out with on my tank and ended up giving away this Amazon sword:









Hope this helps.

Edit: By the way, swords love root tablet fertilizers. You could get by with this method of fertilizing alone.


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## SamandAnne (Feb 24, 2010)

Thanks everyone. By your advice I clipped off every leaf that had signs of the BBA. And now I'm not afraid of ferts & root tabs with copper, so I have new root tabs in now.  Hopefully that will give the plants some help from the ground up in recovering! I also cleaned out my canister filter.

I tried the water change Excel OD method, and targeting the plants with BBA, but none of it had turned red yet after a couple days. However, now I've cut everything off that had it, so I'll keep an eye to see if/when it returns. 

@sewingalot I'm looking at the simple CO2 setups to see what I can get to work to hopefully stabilize the levels. Thanks for the info!


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## SamandAnne (Feb 24, 2010)

Well, it seemed like it disappeared, but it's back again! So...

1) I got an eye-dropper to better target the algae with 30mL excel during a water change with the filter off for still water
2) did a water change and really tried to get all the gunk out, may switch this to two times a week for awhile (read somewhere extra organics in the tank contribute, too), 
3) soaked my driftwood in hydrogen peroxide (outside of the tank!). 
4) Just put the DIY CO2 on this past week, too. 
5) Stopped dosing the water column for now and switched to root tabs. 

Haven't seen anything turn red yet but I'm hoping it will this time around. Hopefully all this works!


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## timwag2001 (Jul 3, 2009)

dont stop dosing the water column. use both root tabs and water column ferts


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## SamandAnne (Feb 24, 2010)

oh...if any admin wants to move this to the algae section, feel free...just originally thought this was a plant question!


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