Sick Anubias nana

[jsoong]

Just wondering, does Anubias suffer from crypt melt?

I moved my one year old A. nana couple weeks ago. I originally planted this on top of my river rocks, with rhizome showing. Over a few weeks, it had nicely rooted to the rocks. Well, the plant was getting too big for the space, so I moved it. All I did was picked up the handful of rocks the plant was rooted in, and removed the whole plant without disturbing the roots (much).

There was algae on the leaves, so during the move, I scrubbed the algae off .... lightly, with a scrubber.

I put the plant in the new spot & all appears well. Over the last week or so, the plant started to have yellow leaves, holes appears, and all but 2 leaves fell off. I started out with a nice plant that was getting too big to a sorry looking thing with 2 puny leaves (and no new ones coming.)

My question is - did I kill it? Or is this like crypt melt & the plant will bounce back? The rhyzome is still plump & greem and about 1/4" x 2".

For info, this is a low light (1.5 wpg), low tech tank at 72F. No change in routine. Dosing KNO3 to 10, occasional trace mix but mostly fertilized by the goldies. Fairly lightly planted (few dozen stems hornwort, a couple dozen baby java ferns (1-2"), in process of adding more plants.)

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi jsoong! I can't really answer your question but I have experienced what you have with your Anubias nana. My A. nana has a few yellowish spots on the oldest, biggest leaf and a few brown spots on the edges of that leaf.

I have had other Anubias sp. - afzelli and coffeefolia. Both of them did much better than my A. nana. The A. nana seems to grow much more slowly than the afzelli or coffeefolia too.

I think the nana will grow back if the rhizome is still plump and green. One time another rhizome of A. nana that I had got very mushy and fell apart. If your rhizome is still in good shape, it should grow back. Another interesting observation I made about my A. nana -- I split a rhizome to try to get another plant. The piece I split was only about an inch long. At first I put it back in the tank. I was then afraid that I was going to lose it or vac it up, so I put it in a plastic cup. It didn't receive a lot of light at all in the cup. When I remembered to check on it almost a month later, it had grown three little leaves. So I think if yours is still healthy and remains undisturbed for awhile, it will be fine.

 

[jsoong]

Hope you are right, the plant had now lost ALL its leaves.

 

[BlazerFRS]

Crypt melt is not a disease, it's just something crypts tend to do when conditions change, the plant is moved, etc.
Since it's not caused by an outside infection you can't say an anubias suffers from crypt melt...

But like An t-iasg said, as long as the rhizome looks fine it should sprout new leaves.

 

[An t-iasg]

Sorry to hear that, jsoong. If you can (because your nana seems a lot bigger than mine) I would try to put it in a cup with some water, so that it remains undisturbed and in a little darker environment than the tank. I know it doesn't sound like that could possibly help since you're taking the rhizome away from the lights and nutrients of the tank, but I was surprised at how well the little rhizome did that I had in the cup. I just had my cup sitting out on the kitchen counter. It got ambient room light but no light shining right into the cup.

 

[BillD]

There was probably damage done to the leaves by the scrubber. I usually emerse the leaves in a 1:20 bleach solution for a minute or two, to kill the algae, then gently rub off the dead algae with your finger. The plant should come back as long as the rhizome is still alive, but it will take some time.