# Anacharis growing roots at every juncture



## gvfarns (Oct 4, 2010)

I'm brand new to having a planted tank. I started my fish tank 6 weeks ago or so and one of the main plants I started with is anacharis. It is behaving strangely and I'm not sure what the right way to handle it is.

The short story: all the original leaves that came with it have turned pretty much clear (died), but it has sprouted a bunch of new growth that is vibrant green. The problem is that everywhere new growth has begun, it has also sprouted roots, which are growing down. Most of the roots are about 3 inches long but they get longer each day. Each stem (more or less 8 inches long) has lots of new junctures where roots and new growth are coming out, mostly near the top of the stem. 

My question is whether I should cut all these stems below where the roots are coming out and plant the roots? That would be a bummer because then all my anacharis would be really short (and there would be more of them than i really want), but at least there wouldn't be a massive amount of dead plant in my aquarium.

Background on how i got here: I bought this stuff from petco when my tank was pretty new. I put the bottoms of the plants in the gravel. My tank currently has 1 T5HO bulb over it (the second is arriving tomorrow) and a lamp pointing at it (temporarily). I also have a DIY CO2 injection bubble stone in operation and I have fertilized periodically with Tetraplant florapride (basically just potash and iron). For the first few weeks they were in there there was no new growth on the plants. The leaves were just getting yellow. Then I had a bout of brown algae, the kind that you can dust off. It was all over. I sort of brushed it off with my hands, it was sucked up in the filter, and no more brown algae has grown since then. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago this new growth occurred in the plants. Now every time I look there is more growth, which is nice, but the roots are getting unsightly (they are quite high up in the aquarium) and I'm not sure what the right procedure is.

Each stem has like 2 or 3 places where roots are beginning to grow, mostly near the tips. Should I cut it up or what?

Also in the tank: java fern, anubia, two unidentified plants that came with the snails, and one of those banana plant looking things.

Advice from some more experienced growers?

(BTW in the tank I have some MTS which I hoped would eat whatever leaves were dying but they tend to ignore the plants and hang out on the gravel and walls. If I got an otto would it eat the decaying leaves?)


----------



## Jadelin (Sep 30, 2009)

You can cut the healthy bits off the dead parts to remove the decaying plants from your water, if it gets bad (in fact you should do this to preserve your water quality and fishes' health if they are really rotting). Anacharis can grow floating, so if you don't want to plant all the short stems you can leave them floating around until they get longer. You could also plant some and leave some floating.

Most stem plants grow roots from each node; if you don't like them you can trim them off. You don't have to cut the stems apart, because they would just grow more nodes and more hanging roots.


----------



## gvfarns (Oct 4, 2010)

Thanks for the info. So basically it sounds like I'm ok either leaving it all intact for a while, cutting it up, or even cutting off the roots. Though the original leaves are clear, the stems still seem alive and it doesn't seem too rotten so I guess I'll leave things alone for a while, then maybe cut it up later. I have some plays in there that are nibbling the most dead leaves anyway so hopefully it won't get too rotten.


----------



## Jadelin (Sep 30, 2009)

Yup. With stem plants you have a lot of options.


----------

