What's eating my anubia?????

[Big C]

My anubia is looking great since I placed it (and tied it) on top of a piece of driftwood. In the last 3 weeks it gave me 3 beautiful shiny new leaves!!!! I think it may be because it is higher up and closer to the light. It's gorgeous!

But each one of the new leaves is sporting a series of wholes in the center. Which one of my "dear" pets is doing this?

Thank you!

 

[penpitt]

It could be a nutrient defeciency, probably potassium. Anubias have a rather tough leaf and I would suspect that your other plants would also be getting eaten in addition to the anubias

 

[malkore]

Its me!

j/k

fish damage almost always starts from the outside, and moves in. Anubies leaves are VERY hard and not to any fishes liking really. Certainly not the fish you have (the pleco and SAE might uproot plants, but really shouldn't damage them when feeding on algae unless it's a very fine leave'd plant...like cabomba, rotala wallichi, foxtail, etc)

I'm pretty sure you're looking at a nutrient deficiency. Potassium or iron perhaps. any pics you can post?

try looking here: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

 

[Big C]

Malkore, dear, I'll buy you dinner if you're hungry, but LEAVE MY ANUBIA ALONE!!!!!

Let see if I can post these

 

[Jchillin]

I have to agree...the damage looks like it's coming from within.

 

[Big C]

How do I fix it? 8O

 

[Jchillin]

Check the link malkore gave (before he ate your anubia). Has a menu of solutions for what ails ya.

 

[Big C]

I did. But I cannot identify the problem there. There is no match for new leaves with holes in the center. And Malkore must be sleeping now after such a feast!

 

[Jchillin]

Sorry Big C...didn't catch your last post. I will take a stab and say it's a potassium deficiency. Here's what CG says:

Pinholes appear in older leaves, and slowly enlarge
Yellow areas
Withering of leaf edges and tips

The holes more than likely started out this way and then enlarged.

HTH.

 

[Big C]

Thank you "J". I started again with the fertilizer that contains K2O and Fe. I had stopped using it because of the algae. But now I have the UV filter and the SAE, so hopefully the algae will stay away.

 

[malkore]

A super cheap source of potassium is KCl...a.k.a. No-Salt brand salt substitute.
You can use this link to determine dosing: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_dosage_calc.htm

there's also a Windows only downloadable version of his dosing chart.

There's no reason to make a stock solution of KCl. Instead, using the online calculator, simply put enter 1mL for the amount of water to mix with, and that will tell you what the prescribed amount will do to your tank (since it's telling you what 1mL of the stock solution would do)
in your case, a half tsp of KCl in 1mL water, dosing that 1mL to a 30gal tank, would give you about 14ppm of K. That's what I'd dose right after a water change for a high light, CO2 injected tank.
for less 'robust' tanks, I'd only dose 10ppm.

The only issue I see with your current fert is that Fe is a trace, and when you get too much of it, you end up with long, thread-like algae...4"-8" long. Its at least easy to remove manually, but is a bit annoying.