What's up with my Anacharis?

[bluerose]

I have an 8gal planted tank with mostly Anacharis, a few Anubias Nana and what I think may be a Java Fern or sword of some type (it was stuck in a clump of anacharis at the LFS and the owner gave it to me as it was pretty small and shabby looking).

I have several stalks of anacharis that are browning up and dying...

This is subsequent to losing a sick fish (no idea what the problem was, didn't manage to identify it before it died although I suspect it was a tumor as the fish had a very large one).

I do ~20% PWCs weekly, dose with Flourish comprehensive weekly (I do under-dose, but with inverts and a plant substrate I think I'm OK with the half dose-- the plants have been quite happy on this regimen for a while). Tank is lit ~9 hours with 16W fluorescents. Haven't used Excel since I found it melts anacharis and had to replant my whole tank (oops).

The anacharis in my betta tank, which gets probably half the light of the main tank and was grown in the main tank, is green and healthy if slow-growing.



This just occurred to me-- I lost the female betta in the 8gal over the weekend. She was stuck on top of the filter (internal filter, not HOB) and I assumed she had gotten stuck there and died but it's possible she was swept there by the current-- the first fish that died (a neon tetra) was 'cleaned up' by everybody else as I was gone for the weekend. If it was some sort of parasite that killed the neon, the betta, and is getting into my plants... uh-oh.

Shrimp and snail colony are VERY active... snails are all over the place. Good ol' MTS always reproduce to the rescue...

 

[mgamer20o0]

whats your nitrate level?

 

[bluerose]

Last I checked, holding steady at 5ppm. That was last week.

I could check again, but after seeing the snails all over and scooping out a dead fish, I dosed with AmQuel+ as a precaution for an ammonia/nitrite spike (couldn't do a PWC at the time), so if it worked the nitrate will read incorrectly.

 

[mgamer20o0]

two things i seen in mine. part of the plant blocking the light from the lower parts. not sure if this can be the cause. that or its running out of ferts in the water. again hard to tell with out seeing a pic.

 

[bluerose]

It's only bits and pieces of Anacharis... not the whole tankful (the majority of the stuff is fine).

It's the tops that are dying. One main stalk that is going could be getting crowded out for light I suppose-- the other gets plenty.

I don't really buy the light argument though as it shouldn't melt/die but rather just not grow. Anacharis seems to photosynth enough to survive with almost no light/ferts.

 

[jrp1588]

from experience I can tell you that parts of plants not exposed to enough light do tend to die off. The plant is saving energy. It doesn't want to spend its valuable nutrients keeping leaves around that aren't doing it any good

 

[joy13]

Excel can melt Anacharis. PlantGeek.net - Egeria densa

 

[bluerose]

Joy-- I know. Been there, done that, had to get all new anacharis... this stuff has never seen Excel in my tank.

 

[Purrbox]

What temperature is the aquarium being kept at? Anacharis tends to prefer cooler temps. Also hobby grade test kits aren't entirely accurate at measuring Nitrate levels below 20ppm, so it's entirely possible that your Nitrates have bottomed out.

 

[bluerose]

Aquarium is about 80; had a betta in there. I could turn it down now as the betta is no longer. I dosed more Flourish today in case it's nutrients although I doubt it (continue reading).

However... can you say HOLY HAIR ALGAE?! All of the anacharis that is near the top is fuzzed. My MTS have been out all day munching away on the walls, plants, driftwood... the shrimp are helping.

I cut the lighting down by a couple of hours-- should I cut it further (IE, to how many hours)? I'm getting a couple of spots of beard algae as well as the usual brown crap on my anubias that won't go away (not diatoms).

Argh...

I think I may invest in more shrimp. I enjoy the little buggers and my tetras and cories don't bother them. And they munch algae.

 

[mgamer20o0]

try 76. betta would be fine in cooler temps too.

 

[bluerose]

I really don't know what's up with people (in general) not reading posts.

The betta (as mentioned twice) is no longer in the tank.

Even so, my (SEPARATE) betta tank is warmer (main tank is usually 78-80, betta tank is usually 80-82) and the anacharis in there is fine. Not really growing, which is fine and expected as the lighting isn't as regular, but not dying off either.

I'll try lowering the temp but I'm not sure how well that will work as the lights do a lot of the heating when they're on. The hair algae is going away since I shortened the photoperiod. The MTS are still out all day, though. It's very strange.

 

[jrp1588]

Don't be rude. He was just trying to help. He probably didn't have time to read through the entire thread for whatever reason

 

[bluerose]

Note the (in general)... I see it regularly on most threads.

Seems that the die-off is not getting worse and the algae is also diminishing. Haven't lowered the temp yet, just dosed Flourish and shortened the photoperiod.

 

[humdedum]

Hmm. My Anacharis has been disintegrating too.

 

[xander]

I would just cull the dieing ends
pruning thats the word
anacharis is pretty hardy and will grow back if conditions are well