# Stop Anubias Melt



## jw.cS

This is getting ridiculous. My hoard of petite Anubias are melting one by one over the past 2 weeks. I have lost over 15 *mother* clumps...with no end in sight. Have there been any advances in the hobby in treating this dreadful condition? This hurts. :crying:

The rhizome literally becomes mush, and the healthy intact leaves detach at the petiole-rhizome connection. All my other plants are fine. No algae anywhere except some typical brown type on glass. Argh! 

The only change to the tank is the addition of some active substrate almost 2 months ago. Tank has been set up and very stable for over a year. Heavily planted, medium light, non-CO2, glutaraldehyde supplementation. NPK fertilization without traces ever since new substrate addition (PITA) because any trace supplementation results in severe leaf-tip stunting. Dwarf shrimps, nerite and assassin snails aren't going crazy either.

Please help.


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## Melika

I haven't found any updated info myself. I bought some new coffeefolia and added it to my 10g anubias tank and within two weeks they started forming white fungus on them which alerted me to the rot that was happening. One has been lost, another affected (I trimmed off the rotted rhizome), and one still unaffected. Someone on a forum I found while scouring the net said they used Pimafix to get rid of the fungus (it is still unknown weather the fungus happens first or simply as a byproduct of the rot making the plant susceptible) and all their anubias recovered. So basically that's what I'm trying, since I really have nothing to lose at this point. So far the unaffected one is still fine and the affected one doesn't seem to show any signs of rot. I'm continuing the Pimafix treatment. Coincidence? Maybe. Who knows. It seems like we're all still left flailing when it comes to anubias rhizome rot.

So far none of my other anubias are showing signs of rot.


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## mistergreen

What's active substrate?

How much glut? What's the temperature?
My anubias melted when I forgot to plug in the heater. The tank's temp was 64F.


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## Preeths

Happened to me twice, lost almost 20 - 30 rhizomes each time. I cut off the affected part did a fairly large water change and over dosed glut 3X times. This seemed to stop it. On the bright side, each rhizome started developing 3 new plants where it was cut!


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## klibs

I am pretty sure anubias nana does not do well with glut

I saw melting on my nana petite prior to quitting using excel and it grew fine once I stopped. My larger anubias species were not affected as much.


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## AquaAurora

Bulletin of Russian Anubias Forum: Anubias plants rotting: facts, rumours and guessworks


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## BruceF

I lost a lot of anubias last year. I found the only solution was to cut out all the rot and spary the cuts with a little h2o2. Having done that I put the remnants in other tanks to recover. Whatever this pathogen seems to be I can only assume that it is already in the tank and the plants need to be removed from that environment.


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## Sthovin

i just lost a fair few anubis leaves from overdosing on seachem excell, similar to gult. Dosed less, solved the issue


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## AquaAurora

Was busy earlier so just slapped up a link. It sounds like you got 1 or more plants with the disease known as rhizome rot. It will spread to other anubias through the water, and can also effect crypts, swords, and buce.
Effects of rhizome rot include:
Rapid deterioration of leaves (looks like nitrate deficiency on fast forward)
Loss/lack of roots
Discoloration on rhizome or stem near base
Foul smell like garbage
Soft/mushy rhizome
Eventually it completely rots

Cutting the rhizome past the rotted part and into the healthy rhizome (cut end should have no discoloration) and dipping it can help but its not a 100% guarantee of saving the plant. However putting it back in the same tank just re-introduces it to the disease. Quarantine any new anubias for a period of 1 month in its own bowl or water with some light (next to a tank or by a window works) to make sure it doesn't come in with the disease. If you suspect one in the tank remove it and quarantine it. Leave sick plants in lets it spread, closest anubias to an infected one is usually the next to start rotting. A few species are resistant to the rhizome rot disease, I don't know all the technical details but what causes the red pigment in their rhizomes also helps resist the rot. True coffeefolia and I believe hastifolia are 2 of them.

I've tried twice to have large anubias collections and had sadly bought from sellers with the rhizome rot.. I lost a good $300.. probably nearer to $400 worth of anubias from the rot. Now I only have petite, micro, gold in tanks.. and 2 nana (tossed in a black worm culture bin). I won't buy any more after the disasters..


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## jw.cS

Okie dokie. 6 more rhizomes bit the dust today, with 7 more showing signs of transparency that should melt in the coming days. I need heart medications tbh.

Trimmed what I can since most of my petite Anubias are well established and attached to driftwood and rocks. Did the obligatory daily water changes (oh good lord! don't die please annoying shrimps!). I feel so helpless.












BucePlant said:


> Thats strange, I rarely get melt on my Anubias. Usually Crpyts and Buce get more melt, but thats only when first introduced. Can you specify what lighting you have? Even though Anubias can get by with very little lighting, that may be a reason for the melt if they're not getting any light at all.


30" Finnex Fugeray Planted+ mounted 6 inches above a 12" tall, 20 gallon long. The melt is indiscriminate: plants growing directly under the surface to ones in the deepest shade under driftwood are all melting with equal intensity. None of the 6 other _Bucephalandra spp._ (or any other plant really) are affected.



Melika said:


> I haven't found any updated info myself. I bought some new coffeefolia and added it to my 10g anubias tank and within two weeks they started forming white fungus on them which alerted me to the rot that was happening. [...] So far none of my other anubias are showing signs of rot.


I may have introduced this pathogen via some new Anubias a few weeks ago. But it has spread all over the tank by now. Both year-long established rhizomes and newly introduced rhizomes are affected. Nobody is safe. I will also try the Pimafix. I am leery of antifungal products as they are also phytotoxic; but at this point, what do I have to lose? The other plant species are doing quite well so I hope they don't mind some temporary poison.



mistergreen said:


> What's active substrate? How much glut? What's the temperature?


Uhm, in short: an active substrate (e.g. ADA Aquasoil) is a substrate that actively changes the water chemistry (e.g. buffering). Mine is Controsoil, now known as Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinVolcanit. It lowers KH and, in my case, drastically reduces GH...the latter of which annoys me to no end.

Standardizing to Seachem's Flourish Excel, anywhere between 2-5 mL daily to a net water volume of ~15 gallon. This regiment has gone on for over a year to no noticeable ill effects. In fact, everything (_Rotala spp._, mosses, liverworts, _Bucephalandra spp._, frogbit, DHG 'Belem', _Hemianthus callitrichoides_, _Marsilea spp._, _Ludwigia spp._ and yes even the _Anubias spp._) are actively growing. The dumb dwarf shrimps are interbreeding.

The temperature fluctuates anywhere between 71-75 degrees F, depending on ambient room temperature.



AquaAurora said:


> Bulletin of Russian Anubias Forum: Anubias plants rotting: facts, rumours and guessworks


In other words, cry, get inebriated, eat a lot of ice-cream and revel in other hobbyists' miseries while waiting for the condition to stop whenever it feels like it. I can deal with that.


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## WaterLife

Sorry didn't read the whole thread, but if this may be of any help, look up "Anubias disease"

Pretty much it's some infection of the plant and is contagious to other Anubias. It's a rare case and I don't think a cure has been found. People have said to separate all Anubias showing rot, in attempt to keep the other Anubias from getting infected. Then it's best to observe both groups of anubias, especially checking the uninfected anubias in case they turn up getting infected. Some commercial growers have lost a ton of money to that disease. Separating sooner rather than later is best.

Again, I haven't read the thread, but might be worth looking into if this may be what you are experiencing.


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## jw.cS

Savage. Just savage.

I don't know what happened within the last 24 hours but something accelerated and I woke up this morning to utter destruction: all the rhizomes are now showing tip death. The antifungal medicine doesn't even have a chance to get shipped and used. SAVAGE!



AquaAurora said:


> I've tried twice to have large anubias collections and had sadly bought from sellers with the rhizome rot.. I lost a good $300.. probably nearer to $400 worth of anubias from the rot. Now I only have petite, micro, gold in tanks.. and 2 nana (tossed in a black worm culture bin). I won't buy any more after the disasters..


You wanna to grab some liquor, throw shade and talk sh%$ about people because I am in that kind of mood right now? In all seriousness, I have spent more than that over the past year (in Anubias alone :icon_redf) in an attempt to have a slow-burn, chill aquarium. Oh well. Better this than getting stabbed in a bar while picking a fight with someone bigger than you and spend thousands on medical bills. *shrugs*

I am going to remove every single rhizome from the tank and leave it be for a month to hopefully get rid of any remaining vestige of the mysterious pathogen. *sobbbbbbbs* The entire aquascape's structure is anchored by the Anubias, from which everything else plays a supporting role. *cries* But, at this point, there is just no way to save any of them. And even if I can, I don't think I would enjoy waiting for the remnants to regrow into its former glory. Rather save the money to purchase more Anubias. Love 'em!

Hopefully this is a one time deal with the seller because I don't know of anyone else that sell large quantities of big size pots of lush petite Anubias. How can one aquascape when the basic raw materials aren't readily available? I am not a collector! I just want a nice looking tank that stays put. :crying: Tropica needs to move their operation to the States tbh! I hate having to piece-meal a plant here and a plant there from numerous sources over a long period of time. So salty today.

But I sincerely thank you for everyone's help and research. Maybe in another 10 years, we can just throw in a tablet and call it a day instead of having to resort to liquor and having a knife fight with some Amazonian named Big Freida in order to deal with our problems.


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## mistergreen

There's no mysterious pathogen. It's environmental.


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## Melika

D: A terrible loss. That was basically my conclusion: flail around a while and accept inevitability.

But... those pics are from the only blog that has literally left me falling out of my chair with tears and laughter.


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## jw.cS

mistergreen said:


> There's no mysterious pathogen. It's environmental.


Hi mistergreen! Will you kindly look at my previous replies and provide some insight in what I may have done to change the environment to favor Wicked-Witch-Of-The-West type death?

The only thing I can think of is the glutaraldehyde. But I have been doing that for over a year. I'd think even the slow-growing, slow-to-react Anubias would show some kind of aversion symptom(s) before hand. I even stopped dosing the glutaraldehyde (Metricide 14) for 7 days now. Is it too little, too late?

Regarding temperature, as noted earlier, the tank has never had a heater/cooler. My house is maintained a constant 75 degrees F 24/7. The little color changing thermometer sticker always hover around the 71-75 marks so the actual temperature should be somewhere around there.

I honestly and desperately would like to learn something from this experience before I place another large order.

Thank you very much Sir.



Melika said:


> But... those pics are from the only blog that has literally left me falling out of my chair with tears and laughter.


*laughs* You are so sweet. Misery sure does love company. :grin2:

I do love me some random, exaggerated non sequiturs.


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## mistergreen

There are variables that you can't account for. That does not lead to some mysterious plant pathogen.
Plants need light, water, CO2, nutrients, and temperature it loves. Try starting there.


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## BruceF

Right an ick is not a pathogen either it is just a temperature problem.


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## Kathyy

Just because usually aquarium plants perish due to poor care doesn't mean they cannot get disease.

I've had my Anubias nana maybe since before 2000 and lost a short bit of rhizome that never sprouted new leaves. Never has any rotted like OP's and it's been subjected to horrific neglect on occasion.

My new to me 'Petit' is quarantined in a different tank, this disease is a horrible thing.


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## WaterLife

LOL just noticed the drawings.

Just use this as an reason to buy Bucephalandra collections instead 
As far as I know, Anubias rhizome rot disease is only subject to Anubias and does not infect rhizomes of Java Fern or Buces. (someone please correct this statement if wrong)


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## jw.cS

OH LORDY! It's happening again. My other tank is now showing symptoms of this rot. *cries* For the past week, I have been collecting at least 2-3 leaves daily, off of the water surface. It must have been contaminated from the original patient-zero tank that I didn't want to tear down since it is so well-established. Does this mean I have to throw everything in the trash and buy everything new: new tank, new filter, new girlfriend, new plants, new everything? Or just never keep any Anubias spp. again? *cries*

Today, I discovered one tip of my main Anubias ball disintegrating. OH GOD. It is only going to get worse. See below. I have also attached a photo and video of surrounding plants that show absolutely no freaking symptom of deficiency...except for the Ludwigia sp. 'Red' that has some leaf curling but no stunting and grows like a teenage boy. No algae to speak of, on tank glass or otherwise. Welllll....maybe a little bit of Marimo-type Cladophora that will reliably multiply if I ever zero out on nitrogen/phosphate for a while. Annoying, but it’s the best algae in the world--controllable. Give me that any day. Otherwise, no other algae present anywhere. No diatoms, green spots, BBA, green dust, whatever…Haven’t cleaned this tank’s glass in months and months.










*Please change the resolution to 720p HD so you can see the videos' proper rendition of the plants' color and other details. I don’t know how to edit so please forgive.*

Anubias sp. 'Petite' showing the first tip death. In the next few weeks, everything you see will have melted away...the leaves will have shed like a caterpillar's chrysalis...but instead of a beautiful butterfly, you'll just get this: me, after doing one push-up.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgoshQOBTlnsaU9eM5g

Ludwigia sp. 'Red' showing curling, chlorosis but still growing like a weedy, annoying teenager. Ignore the filmy surface. I'm trying to get some nerdy fish to eat so there's 4 different types of food in the water right now. Live Daphnia is apparently too big for their mouths apparently. Conservative amateurs! :icon_roll
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgoskUn2zVJnPEqCn5g
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgosiq_dZIVIIy0h7Kw
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgosj0rFFg364oA6AQw

Driftwood is fairly nice and clean, despite being right under the surface. *fingers crossed*
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgosYAJlDxPqwCGJ1MA
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgosXuYf1vWUvH4jc2w

The tank is doing pretty well...except for the fish ignoring all 4 different types of food clouding the water surface and the camera doing some weird thing, making the tank's lighting all dark and angsty--which is just fine with me, since the aquascape is a piece of "last night's attempt at cooking dinner."
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgosc6CldYNjeEYQgQw

Read some literature on Manganese and Aluminum toxicity this week…that would explain the weird behavior in Anubias root rot and Ca/Mg-deficiency (but shouldn’t) Ludwigia chlorosis/curling in otherwise extremely healthy plants. Maybe it’s my super soft (0 KH), acidic (pH 6-6.5) RO water, reconstituted with Bee Shrimp’s Mineral GH+ to 6 dGH. I have no gosh darn idea if GH+ has Mg in it. Manufacturer won’t respond. Google has no idea. So I ordered some GH Booster from GLA and will start (1) adding 1-2 dKH and/or (2) stop Plantex CSM+B and dose only Fe-DPTA. I hope it works out because I am not ready to substitute the Anubias…NO I AM NOT…I AM A FAITHFUL BASTARD!!!! NOT BECAUSE THERE’S A LACK OF CHOICE OVER OTHER PLANTS THAT LOOK LIKE ANUBIAS!!!

But seriously, please help. I really don't want to lose all my Anubias sp. 'Petite', especially the mother plant. :crying:


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## jw.cS

OMG. WHAT IS GOING ONNNNN?!?!

Now, not only do the Anubias spp.'s roots are turning transparent and melt away, the roots on my Bucephalandra spp. are doing the same: the tips turn transparent and gradually melt away, stopping at the rhizome. WTFreak?! This only affect the new white roots only. Those that have matured and greened up do not melt away (at least not yet?!) The plants are healthy otherwise: putting out new leaves and pearling. See video. Arghhhg!

Put on 720p resolution for details.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AjuZsMc6teYrgpByeCGW_-K8atq4uw

I stopped using Salty Shrimp's GH+ and got GLA's GH Booster because I wasn't sure if GH+ has Mg. Just started dosing for 2 days only. Too early to tell. Is it KH? My KH is 0-1 due to RO and nice tap water. Maybe I should increase KH by 1-2 degrees maybe? If I do it concurrently with the Mg issue then I can't diagnose any problem(s). ARGH! Frustrating!

Anyone experiencing Bucephalandra root tip death?


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## jw.cS

Okie dokie. I give up.

I have tried medication. I have tried CO2. I have tried nutrients. I have tried light. I have tried RO/tap water. They all either delay or accelerate the speed of rot instead of stopping it. It's getting old. I am weary. The rot has now infected my 40G breeder and the resulting ammonia spike has killed quite a few of my dwarf shrimps. I am done.

I have just finished ripping out all of the remaining rhizomes. They are free to anyone who is interested in receiving a sample of this disease to experiment or whatever.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/156-wtb-raok/1064905-24-x-24-anubias-barteri-var-nana-petite.html

I need a few hours in my fridge cuz I badly need to chill the freak out.

---

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this saga. My utmost of appreciation. Kisses!


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## E.T.

Dear jw, I cannot believe the terrible saga you have endoured. My heart goes out to you! How are you doing now? Are you growing new Petites or did you give up completely? I wouldn't blame you if you did after this nightmare.

I recently decided I would try some Petites and see how they go. One of the three I baught definately came in with the disease. I noticed it a bit too late and it spread to a second plant. The third looks healthy so far. I isolated the two sick ones, rinced and cut all the rot away I could but it's hard on such small plants. I'm trying something different though as an experiment so let's see if it works. I made up a strong salt solution of 1 tsp baking soda per 100ml lukewarm water and soaked the remaining 3 bits of rhizome in it for 15 to 20min. I then put those in lukewarm tap water (so not dechlorinated) with a couple of drops of liquid CO2 in small containers and sealed them with plastic wrap. These are now placed next to the tank where they can stay warm and getting some light. I have no idea if anything will survive at all, but as nobody seems to have a good answer on how to beat this evil disease, I guess my experiment is worth a try. I will wait and see. If by some miracle it works I will post again with an update. Fingers crossed...


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## E.T.

OK so I just thought I should report back for the odd reader that might come across this thread. 

I have had some mixed success experimenting to try and save some Anubias from rot now. First off the above experiment using baking soda and isolation did not work. The third petit plant also got the disease and in the end I lost all of my petits. Then one of the bigger normal A. nana plants started to melt. This time I pulled it out early enough I think, or maybe the normal nanas are a bit better at fighting off the disease than the petits. Anyway here's what happened. I took out the nana and cut back into healthy rhizome to remove the affected parts. What I was left with was only 2 small pieces of healthy looking rhizome although there was some brown discolouration in the middle of the cut part of one rhizome, but I am not sure if this was a sign of the disease. I didn't have any peroxide which is what is recommended for sterilisation, but I did have household bleach. So I mixed up 1 part bleach in 2 parts water and soaked the healthy rhizome pieces in this for 10 or 15 minutes. I then rinsed them and soaked them in double strength dechlorinator with water to counter the bleach for about 10min again. Then I dried the rhizomes lightly, super glued them to small rocks and placed them in isolation each in its own container with some aquarium soil. I tried to make sure that the roots were in contact with the soil while the rocks basically kept the rhizome bits stable and not in direct contact with soil. I wetted the soil thoroughly but did not cover the plants with water, then I covered the containers with clingfilm. These I then placed in direct sunlight outside (it was Spring in Tokyo so nice and warm but not boiling). It has been about a month. The 2 small rhizome bits have finally started to put out small new leaves. So I think I have saved something in the end. I will leave them to grow for at least another month before I try to put them back in the tank, just so that the plants can get stronger again.

So here is my final advice for dealing with Anubias rot. Remove and isolate all anubias plants from your tank immediately and house each patient in it's own container. Cut away rotted leaves, stems and pieces of rhizome aggressively. Rather try to save a small piece of definitely healthy rhizome than a bigger piece that might be contaminated with the disease. Sterilise your tools in between working on different plants. Sterilise the salvaged rhizomes in 1/3 bleach solution or peroxide. Neutralise the bleach by rinsing and using dechlorinator. Stabilise the rhizomes in each container and provide them with some aquarium soil to feed on. Wet the soil heavily and cover and let the plants try to regrow for the next month or two until they have new leaves. If the rhizomes you tried to rescue are still affected with the disease they will likely not make it past 2 weeks in isolation.

Good luck! I hope this post helps some people save some plants.


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## Smooch

I've recently had a bout of anubia deaths. The only new things in the tank are root tabs which are not a problem as they're mostly made of soil and rhizomes don't go into the substrate anyway and I tried adding some potassium bicarbonate to the tank to bring up my KH. It wasn't a drastic change as I don't want to mess with the pH too much, while all other tank parameters are where I usually keep them. Nitrates are 15 ppm, no ammonia or algae issues, ect...

Whatever the cause was, it didn't kill all of them. Right now there are three of the remaining that are spitting out new leaves. The leaves are not curled, they're healthy and there are no signs of problems at rhizome level. None of the anubias I lost were new to the tank ( they had been in the tank for over a year) and were tissue cultures, so they didn't carry something from one tank to mine. 

If I was thinking, I should have tried testing the potassium bicarbonate with a anubia in a separate tank; I didn't do that. The potassium bicarbonate went away after I spent a couple of hours checking each anubia and removing all the ones that either had melted or were in the process of doing so. Once I was done with that, I did a big water change and have been on 'anubia watch' for the past few days. All melting has stopped thus so far.

I can't prove the the potassium bicarbonate was the problem, but I won't be using it again. If I want to mess around with KH in the future, there are better ways to do it. I've since discovered SeaChem's Grey Coast, so I'll try adding some of that to my substrate to see where that takes me. It can't be any worse than other methods I've tried and shouldn't kill plants.


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## cl3537

Old thread start a new one.


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## Blue Ridge Reef

jw.cS said:


> Okie dokie. I give up.
> 
> I have tried medication. I have tried CO2. I have tried nutrients. I have tried light. I have tried RO/tap water. They all either delay or accelerate the speed of rot instead of stopping it. It's getting old. I am weary. The rot has now infected my 40G breeder and the resulting ammonia spike has killed quite a few of my dwarf shrimps. I am done.


If down the road, you feel like you have clean tanks and would like to try some more Anubias, please PM me and I'll gift you some healthy plants.


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## s.xiaoh

Just to add to the info since this thread helped me a lot when it happened to me. My experiences with anubias rot. It happened to my anubias nana petite 2 times.

First time it happened was when I dipped it in a peroxide solution to get rid of BBA. Honestly, I dipped it too long. It was also during a rescape. After the dip, I left the plant in an unheated, unfertilized (no shrimp poop), unregulated lighting environment (bucket). It's after a week or so that I noticed the rot. At first I didn't do anything about it, just pulled off the dead leaves. It was on several places on the plant's leaf base and rhizome. But when I realized it continued more and more, part of it turning to mush. I didn't put the plant back in the tank since I was afraid it would spread to the rescaped tank. At some point I was fedup with the bucket and put the plant back in the tank. I never used hydrogen peroxide or other chemicals since that was what started it in the first place. I started to research, then cut off a bit of dead tissue. It continued on for maybe a month or two. I was getting more and more aggressive, cutting in the healthy part to make sure there is no more dead tissue left behind. It left my beautiful big plant into several small pieces, but then it finally stopped the rot. Maybe 1-2 months? Maybe more, I honestly don't remember, it felt like forever. And I wasn't very consistent, I was lazy so I wasn't doing it every week. That all happened maybe 4 years ago. 

Second time, fast forward to today 2020. I'm doing a new rescape with f. stratum for the first time. I did a few more rescapes a few years ago, always with inactive substrate (gravel to flourite to sand). Now I'm switching out the sand (not good results with plants) to F. Stratum. I left my anubias in a bucket again for 2 weeks, no heater, no ferts, no consistent lighting. Yesterday I was putting my anubias back in the tank and I noticed some rot at some places. I cut it off right away. Hopefully the active soil will not worsen the situation.

My conclusion: don't move your anubias to new unfavorables environment for long. The other 2 rescapes in between, I'm pretty sure I put my plant in the tank after just a week or less and there was no rot. In my experience, all the time the rot happened was when the environment was changed and the plant was stressed. I'm starting think of the plant as if they are shrimps: fragile to condition changes.

If it is a fungus or bacteria, maybe it's common in the aquarium and only affect weak plant under stress. 

On a side note, all my crypts didn't melt at all during my rescapes, weird. My val melted under Stratum, but not under my inactive substrate rescapes. 

Hope this will help anyone dealing with this problem in the future. Good luck!









Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk


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## Aqua518

Thank you all for documenting this - about to place a fairly big order of Anubias for a new 180 gallon tank - and had never heard of this rot. Terrifying. I will keep a close eye out!!


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## more-money-than-sense

*Anubias Melt Mystery SOLVED!*

Just had same experience with a large and expensive order of Anubias Nana and Petite (approx. $400 worth). Have lost half of the biomass so far, despite efforts to cut back to "healthy tissue". 

Having read everything here and integrated that with my own recent nightmare, here are the common elements:

1) Using plants grown in ideal nursery conditions (you can't possibly recreate that on day one = plant stress)

2) Using tissue cultured plants with no genetic diversity (they'll ALL respond to changes the same = mass death)

3) Stressing those plants with too cold temps either in shipping or then in a bucket waiting for aquascaping

My take away is don't try to recreate a massive Takashi Amano masterpiece all at once and treat these plants like you would fish or shimp (never allow massive changes in conditions, don't overcrowd them in a bucket forcing them to wait for you to get around to your big aquascaping project, don't allow your seller to ship them without heat packs in the winter, etc.).

For what it is worth, I've literally lost hundreds of dollars on this problem and I do NOT believe the melt is some mysterious disease. I think my plants were genetically selected for nursery growth and thus not very resilient, they got crowded, crunched, and chilled in shipping, and then they waited in my buckets without light/CO2 to get their metabolism going (which would have maybe helped them recover from that stress).

The problem seems to be that we're all used to the bullet proof normal Anubias Nana plants we've been buying for $6 each at fish stores and we're mistakenly applying that experience to the much more delicate Anubias Nana Petite variety (Think of the difference in surface area vs mass! Petites are MUCH more susceptible to quick stress damage from chilling, ammonia exposure, etc. because they don't have a think massive rhizome that can resist temperature change).

So when we see a photo of a huge tank absolutely filled with glorious nana petites, and that spring bonus comes in or whatever, it is tempting to sprint to that finish line all at once with a huge plant order.

Better to start small and see how your supplier handles shipping, prove you can get them all aquascaped as soon as they arrive, and then build on that success with another order.

Good luck everybody!


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## yodog

I know keeping Anubis’s in cold water even for like 30-40 minutes while you are rescaping can cause this rot to start occurring — I was wondering, if someone just left their various Anubis plants (barteri, nana, nana petite, coffeefolia, hastafolia etc.), and left them floating out in the open / up by the surface in the heated aquarium of approx 74 degrees F, would this also be considered a scenario that is highly likely it will spawn this Anubis melt/rot condition? Do anubias have to be attached to a piece of something or is it 100% ok to have them just floating In the water with other anubias plants floating alongside it?

and Is it ok if the anubias is floating semi sideways or upside down? Are their leaves “directional,” in terms of its ability to absorb light/photosynthesis/survive?


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