Jungle Fan

I received the can about 2 months ago, but maybe I need to check, could be the store had old stock but the way it was just crumbling apart I'd prefer feeding Easy Fry. The Repashy Igapo Explorer has worked really well for my fish, shrimp, and snails.

I looked at the videos but in my tank I had the same experience as Cory, it was messier and fell apart sooner and my fish didn't seem to like it as well. I've got a can just sitting here now and am using Repashy instead.

You'll note that once the stems have rooted your plants will lose less leaves if they are planted with enough space in between each stem now because they are getting enough light to sustain them. When you plant stem plants remove some of the leaves on the bottom of the stem to give you enough space to plant them. I use an angled pair of aquatic gardening tweezers to plant them at a slight angle it helps getting them anchored in an established tank. A friend uses some super glue applied to a small portion around the stem and rolls that portion in aquatic soil so some of the grains attach themselves to the stem and can act as an anchor when the plant is planted.

It looks like Helanthium quadricostatus formerly known as Echinodorus quadricostatus until it got taken out of the bigger sword plant family also known as 'Broadleaf Chain Sword', or 'Bolivian Chain Sword'. Like all the sword plants, and crypts it is a heavy root feeder, should be planted in the soil and have root tabs located in the substrate around it to supply iron and potassium so it can really do well when planted. Are you feeding Easy Green, and Liquid Iron, or some other fertilizer directly into the water column? Otherwise it would seem a miracle that the plant is doing so well now that it is glued to lava rock.

The new tabs fall apart easier and are a lot messier. See this thread:

I do translations all the time and it is no big deal, and I have an immediate rough idea of what any value imperial/metric is. I also used to work in nursing that is all done in metric for a good while, so I'm very fluent with the concept but while I no longer need to plan for every occasion, and no longer need to have a schedule for every time I travel by car because I'm "just not that German anymore", I still have the unexplicable, very German urge to have exact translated figures and numbers, and it is just easier to look something up than to look it up and follow up applying formulas and do the math. So eventually I will get Christel's book in English when it becomes available. By the way you don't need to go through Amazon.de and have the Euro hassle but you can order the German edition through Amazon here in the U.S. as I just recently found out after I had already gone through Abebooks. https://www.amazon.com/Aquarienpflanzen-500-Arten-im-Porträt/dp/3818606994/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Christel+Kasselmann&qid=1616423694&sr=8-3 Now if only they would get the ball rolling on the English version, for the sake of aquatic gardeners here in the U.S. and for Christel's sake as well.

@Streetwiseif you want to propagate swords by dividing the original plant it is better to use a sharp knife and cut them in half just once by cutting clean through the middle of the rosette leaving as many healthy leaves untouched as possible, that way the plant has a better chance to recover. When trimming the roots I would generally go no further than trimming off a third or less, leaving the thicker portions of the roots alone. When dividing the plant in my experience it takes a good while longer to see new growth because the plant recovers very slowly but eventually it does and the plant fills in all the way around, however I have seen it take up to the better portion of a year sometimes. Trimming the roots at the time of planting encourages new growth, and better anchoring and plants I have treated that way generally showed better growth than others that I hadn't before I was taught to do so many years ago by a friend who still grows and propagates swords in Germany.

I believe after two to three months it would be counterproductive now that the plants have begun establishing their root system. I would stay the course, it's just something to consider whenever you get new plants, I do the same for crypts as well.

@DShelton I had contacted Christel about ordering the English version directly from her because the sale here in the states through Amazon had been delayed because of COVID and she was willing to sell me two signed copies because the shipping would have been quite a bit and through the German mail and it would have been the same for two, as for one so the company she had handle her sales was only doing the two pack. I decided at the time to just buy a single German version through Abebooks because I didn't know anyone who would have been wanting to buy the second copy off me. I'm still looking forward to get the English copy, after all my years here now I have gotten lazy about having to convert measurements from metric to the way I think now in inches, feet, and gallons, currently that's what I'm doing again, but call me wasteful it would be nice to have for quick look up.

@BetsyI haven't had any problems with any of those regular Anubias like nana, nana petite, and afzelli. I believe a lot more research will have to be done to see for sure whether this is is just some bacterial, or viral infection, or a maybe a weakness in plants that were created by forced mutation, or possibly a combination of both. I'm just going to stick with varieties that aren't new creations for now, and as you said quarantining them for a while might be a good thing. On the other hand Bucephalandras I can give two thumbs up. They took longer in my tank to establish but now they are taking off and they have attached themselves to the rock, or wood that I'd have a hard time dislodging them now.

@Betsy @DanielI have been doing a bit of research on this 'Anubias rot' we have encountered as of late, and while I found some articles that were surmising it might be a bacterial, or viral disease I also found something interesting while reading my latest Christel Kasselmann book in German. I found an entry she made under Anubias barteri var. nana 'Bonsai' in the third paragraph on Page A125 in her new book: “Aquarienpflanzen – 500 Arten im Portraet, 4. Erweiterte Auflage “Aquarium Plants - 500 Species in Individual Portraits, 4th Revised Edition,Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart (Hohenheim), Germany, 2019. She talks about how many of the newer types of Anubias barteri var. nana like 'Variegated', and 'Marble', were created by growers in this new millenium by using virus infected specimen and not just selection, she also mentions 'Golden', 'Wrinkled Leaf', 'Curly Leaf' , and 'Stardust' which have been altered in different ways in regards to leaf shape, or deficient chlorophyll content, so that some of them actually should be considered sick plants. I really like Anubias barteri nana var. 'Golden' but reading this gave me some pause. I hope that we didn't end up with Anubias rot because some unscrupulous someone found a way to make a fast buck by injecting healthy plants with a virus to create mutations. All of my Anubias, barteri var. nana, barteri var. nana 'Petite', and afzelli have been doing extremely well and I really like the appearance of 'Golden' but I think I'm going to be more careful with new 'mutations' and what I add to my tank and I might stick with the natural varieties of Anubias. Now I'm not saying this is is gospel, not even saying that the practices of growers are naturally related to Anubias rot, or that this is a definitive cause, I just found this entry highly interesting, and I though others might find it so too. After all we are all searching for an explanation to where this previously unheard disease came from all of a sudden. I included Daniel in this post to make sure he can read this to make sure it doesn't violate any forum standards. Thank you Daniel!

@Chris P.One to two inches in the initial two months isn't bad for growth in Amazon swords. Did you trim the roots back some when you first planted them to encourage new root growth? Amazon swords are slow growers, and they sometimes go through a phase of recovery first for a few months. I have a Green Ocelot sword that initially remained almost the same for about five months, then it started its growth spurt, and I've now had to trim it back repeatedly because it had reached the surface of the tank. I place at least two to three root tabs deep in the substrate around each of my swords to keep them happy and supplied with iron, and potassium.

@JhendersonYou can keep them in the baskets, however you'll see better growth if you plant them in the substrate, or on rock, or wood, depending on what type of plant you got, Anubias, Java fern, Bucephalandra, and Bolbitis will rot if you plant their rhizome in the substrate; they will thrive if you attach them to a rock, or wood with either moss cotton, or the gel type super glue. I take all of my plants out of the baskets, and remove all the rock wool by means of a small plastic fork, and a small hummingbird feeder port brush. I then rinse them off under the faucet, remove any damaged leaves, and trim the fine endings of the roots. That makes the plant easier to plant and encourages establishment of new roots and a better hold in the substrate. If the plant is a root feeder like Amazon sword, and cryptocoryne I also place root tabs next to the plant as deep as I can get them to provide them with the extra iron, and potassium. The reason why I remove all the rock wool is that growers, especially some in Asia, a lot of times not only drench the rock wool in fertilizer and add long release pellets, but many of them add pesticides to make sure their products arrive undamaged by pests. While that is great for the plants it can get costly as I found out years ago when I lost around $200 worth of Discus due to whatever pesticides a grower had been using. Back then my LFS had received the shipment from his distributor who had made a change in growers. It wasn't my LFS's fault, but I learnt a valuable lesson. Today I continue with my routine to especially save my Nerite snail, and shrimp population, as well as my fish, also I don't need any added fertilizer since my current level of fertilizers I add is sufficient and I don't want to invite algae growth from any amount of excess mystery nutrients. I hope this helps.

@Betsy @m1ie All types of wood can get biofilm depending on if they've been pre-soaked, density of wood, and temperatures. Sometimes they bloom, sometimes they don't. Over the years I've had Malaysian driftwood, Pacific driftwood, Mopani, spiderwood, Manzanita, Amazon wood all got it to some degree, sometimes worse, sometimes less. I now always pre-soak the wood. The Mopani because it releases tons of tannin over a long period, the spiderwood because it takes forever not to float anymore. Usually I place either a rock, or a large piece of Mopani on Spiderwood because Mopani doesn't float. I don't stress over biofilm; snails, shrimp, and all types of catfish love it. If There is something in the wood I want to get rid off I don't boil it, I soaked it in a bucket with water and hydrogen peroxide, it kills the germs and the hydrogen peroxide turns into water over about two days. After that I rinse the wood off, let it dry in the sun, and either let soak some more in water, or place it in the tank, depending on if it floats, or not, and tannin. Boiling destroys the surface structure of the wood and it rots faster than it normally would. Some of the wood in my 75 gallon is now 29 to 30 years old.

@JamesBTwo questions: 1. What type of crypt? 2. Did you just let the crypt melt run its course, or did you trim off all the leaves when you saw what it was doing? Some types of crypts grow much slower than others like parva for example. In my experience it takes crypts much longer to recover from crypt melt if you wait and let it run its course than if you just trim off the leaves. They seem to go through a type of rest and recovery period and think you might just have to give it some more time as it looks like it is already on its way to come back. I don't even wait for new crypts to go through this, I trim off all the leaves just above the rosette when I receive them and plant them like that. This is so the plant doesn't waste any energy on dying leaves but right away focuses its energy and nutrient metabolism on building new leaves.

I would get a yoga foam mat from Wal-mart (usually about $10), put it under it and see what it looks like. If it seems to fix your problem, cut it to size with an Xacto knife. Several of my friends who are heavily into aquascaping and rimless glass tanks are using those instead of the more expensive proprietary products from UNS, and ADA. Mind you though from the pictures it's hard to see how big your problem is, and it does look like it is rimless.

Beautiful Rams, and your plants look amazing for those temperatures.

Just to give you an idea of what it looks like.

This is what I'm using, it's got space enough in between to mount individual timers, and I've mounted it on the wall to create drip loops just in case. https://www.harborfreight.com/electrical/extension-cords-power-strips/power-strips-adaptors/12-outlet-super-power-strip-96737.html

Very nice!

So I just got a fisheye lens for my phone and I had orb graphics more in mind than just using it for photos. Aquarium Worlds.

@JDCNYWith the stem plants make sure to give them some space in between like about an inch, so they have room to grow and are able to receive light for their leaves.

@SalThis looks really great! Once everything starts growing in it will be a stunner. I'd add a few Anubias nana petite to the wood, and maybe some Bacopa caroliniana, or some Ludwigia repens. to the background, and some Anubias afzelli, and Anubias nana to the rocks

Nice tanks @Melissa Ann! What temperature do you keep that German Blue Ram tank at?