New to Anubias. Please Help.

[kashif314]

I bought a an Anubias from store. Looks nice and lush how ever I noticed some issues (or maybe not) later when i placed in my tank. It is attached to lava rock. I have few questions. Kindly please take your time to see videos I posted to help me understand better. My questions are:

1) Is it Anubias Nana or Nana Petite? Please id.

https://youtu.be/A-gzt30aX5o

2) I have some small pest snails which jumped to plant when i placed in tank. Are these pest snails a threat to plant by eating leaves or if they are there to feed on any algae it has?

3) Some of the leaves have hole or like rot. Shall I leave it as it is or pluck out those leaves?

https://youtu.be/3wDl05AP320

4) I noticed upon very close inspection there are like cotton type thing on edges of some leaves. Is it some sort of algae or is it normal? If its something alarming what shall I do to fix it?

https://youtu.be/6sqo6-FkIRA

5) Store guy told me to not plant it inside substrate. Is this fine?

Please take your time and reply. Thanks.

 

[V227]

I can't answer all your questions, but I do have quite a bit of experience with Anubias. Don't plant it in the substrate. I weaved the Anubias roots between the splits and holes in driftwood, or wedged the roots between two rocks. It didn't take long for the roots to take hold. Got to periodically rub the algae off the leaves. I've never used specialized plant lights, the Anubias did fine without it.
As for the snails, they probably won't destroy your plants, but unless you start harvesting them
nuisance snails can quickly over run your tank.
I kept Anubias and Java Fern for years, until I experimented with African Cichlids. They ate all my plants down to nubs within a week.

 

[Fresh2o]

1. Not sure
2. Not a threat to the plants. May eat algae but would not depend on them for algae control.
3. I would cut them off
4. Looks like black beard algae. I would cut those leaves off. Or you could try spot treating the area with hydrogen peroxide or Excel/CO2 Booster type product.
5. The key is to keep the root stalk above the substrate. If the dangling roots find their way to the substrate, that’s fine.

 

[goatnad]

1. does not look like the nana petite variety. its to large. here is nana petite in my tank.
https://i.imgur.com/VJHPgZ5.jpg

compare it to the size of the neon tetra in there then compare yours to your neon tetra.



2. the snails jumped to the plant because snails eat decomposing matter. your plant had dying leaves. they will not touch healthy leaves other than to clean algae off of them. snails are wonderful for a tank. they are a natural part of the ecosystem you are trying to mimic.

3. plants will not heal damaged leaves. they will waste energy attempting to do so but will never repair them. trim off and remove from you tank any damaged leaves.
4. i agree it looks like blackbeard algae. use hydrogen peroxide and a syringe to either spot treat or full tank treat for black beard. 1ml/gallon is all you need. in the end you need to figure out what imbalance you have in your tank that is causing this algae or it will just return again.

5. the rhizome of the plant shouldnt be planted into soil. (the part the roots sprout out from)

 

[kashif314]

I can't answer all your questions, but I do have quite a bit of experience with Anubias. Don't plant it in the substrate. I weaved the Anubias roots between the splits and holes in driftwood, or wedged the roots between two rocks. It didn't take long for the roots to take hold. Got to periodically rub the algae off the leaves. I've never used specialized plant lights, the Anubias did fine without it.
As for the snails, they probably won't destroy your plants, but unless you start harvesting them
nuisance snails can quickly over run your tank.
I kept Anubias and Java Fern for years, until I experimented with African Cichlids. They ate all my plants down to nubs within a week.

Thanks a lot.

1. Not sure
2. Not a threat to the plants. May eat algae but would not depend on them for algae control.
3. I would cut them off
4. Looks like black beard algae. I would cut those leaves off. Or you could try spot treating the area with hydrogen peroxide or Excel/CO2 Booster type product.
5. The key is to keep the root stalk above the substrate. If the dangling roots find their way to the substrate, that’s fine.

1. does not look like the nana petite variety. its to large. here is nana petite in my tank.
https://i.imgur.com/VJHPgZ5.jpg

compare it to the size of the neon tetra in there then compare yours to your neon tetra.



2. the snails jumped to the plant because snails eat decomposing matter. your plant had dying leaves. they will not touch healthy leaves other than to clean algae off of them. snails are wonderful for a tank. they are a natural part of the ecosystem you are trying to mimic.

3. plants will not heal damaged leaves. they will waste energy attempting to do so but will never repair them. trim off and remove from you tank any damaged leaves.
4. i agree it looks like blackbeard algae. use hydrogen peroxide and a syringe to either spot treat or full tank treat for black beard. 1ml/gallon is all you need. in the end you need to figure out what imbalance you have in your tank that is causing this algae or it will just return again.

5. the rhizome of the plant shouldnt be planted into soil. (the part the roots sprout out from)

Thanks a lot. My leaves are definitely bigger than the picture above. So what Anubias it could be? Nana and not Petite? I didn't have any black beard algae. It came with the plant from store. I didn't notice it there. Plant is attached to lava rock and the roots are inside rocks and dangling all around it. I just place it as it is.

1 ) So if I spot treat with excel is it ok for the plant to have contact with excel in close range? I mean if it would melt leaves or something. I can fill a syringe and will press on the effected area. For how long shall I keep doing this.

2) Instead of spot treating can i just put excel in tank like usual? Will it kill BBA? Its a nano 5 gallon so can I put 5 ml of excel as usual?

3) Also if I pluck a leaf will it grow back again? I mean the branches will stay intact and i ll just pluck the leaves which are dead.

Please reply. Thanks.

 

[goatnad]

1 I've never used excel for killing algae. My recommendation is hydrogen peroxide. Way cheaper. For the most part plants will not be affected but some needle leafed plants and sensitive plants could melt. Anubias and the like will do just fine. Some fish could die and shrimp are super sensitive to h2o2 so move them to a container if possible. Turn off your pump when you do this as the h2o2 will kill the bb in your filter. Spot treat or full tank treat for 15 minutes then do a large water change.

2 sorry no clue.

3 don't pluck off the leaves. Use scissors to cut it off as close to the stem as possible. A new leaf will not appear where you removed that one. The plant will put on more leaves at the top.

 

[kashif314]

1 I've never used excel for killing algae. My recommendation is hydrogen peroxide. Way cheaper. For the most part plants will not be affected but some needle leafed plants and sensitive plants could melt. Anubias and the like will do just fine. Some fish could die and shrimp are super sensitive to h2o2 so move them to a container if possible. Turn off your pump when you do this as the h2o2 will kill the bb in your filter. Spot treat or full tank treat for 15 minutes then do a large water change.

2 sorry no clue.

3 don't pluck off the leaves. Use scissors to cut it off as close to the stem as possible. A new leaf will not appear where you removed that one. The plant will put on more leaves at the top.

Thanks a lot. Unfortunately I can't use hydrogen peroxide because i have so many shrimps. Impossible to pick all and put them in container. Some small shrimps and frys too.

 

[Fresh2o]

Then trim the affected leaves.