Is this anubias rot?

[Supermassive]

Leaves on my anubias petite have been turning yellow and melting and then they fall off the rhizome. A lot of leaves aren't even turning yellow and they look perfectly healthy when they fall off. And I can see the rhizome looks brown/grey like its rotting. I have two portions of anubias petite. They are both from the same pot and they are both doing what I described. I also have an anubias nana about 3 inches away from the petite. I've had the nana for a lot longer and its perfectly healthy. I've heard anubias rot can be contagious so now I'm kind of worried that my anubias nana will get it, if it even is anubias rot. Also, when I got the anubias petite I got another one for a different tank and that one is not having the same issue.

I do fertilize my tank. Two days ago my nitrates were around 30-40ppm. KH is around 40ppm and GH is around 60ppm. Ph ~7.4. 

The photo doesn't really do it justice. It looks pretty healthy but multiple leaves are falling off every week. It used to be a lot bushier with more leaves.

[Tanked]

One indicator of Anubia rot is the leaf stems detaching from the rhizome like the one in you hand.  You should check the rhizome of each plant to make sure that the rhizome is not buried.  The rhizome should be firm with no soft spots or discoloration.  If you find these the plant should be removed as the rot is contagious to other Anubia.  You can cut off the infected part of the rhizome and place the remaining plant in quarantine.

[Supermassive]

@Tanked Yeah, many of the leaves detached like that. Its not buried, its wedged into some rocks. Ill take them out and cut off the decayed portion and quarantine it tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

[Supermassive]

@Tanked I removed what I could without completely destroying the plant. If I didn't completely get it all will it just come back? And what is the recommended quarantine length? Thanks again for the help.

[Mary W.]

If the rhizome is melting, that's anubias rot.  If the newer end of the rhizome isn't involved, you can try sharply cutting that off along with its leaves and floating it until it develops roots (or if it's big enough, gluing or tying it onto whatever you eventually want it to attach to).  Then get rid of the part of the plant that rotted.

Anubias in the wild grow partly emersed not completely submerged (someone correct me if that's wrong - every picture of them in nature I have been able to find online shows them on banks of streams or partly sticking out of a marsh or something), so we're asking them to live in conditions they're not really designed for.

Good luck, they're lovely plants -

[nabokovfan87]

Can you take a photo of the rhizome itself?   Essentially, if it is rot, you'd remove the dead section to save the rest of the rhizome.  If you see one this color, it would indicate rot.  You'd want to find a section looking normal and remove the dead spots.

As a sidenote, look for this too.
 

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Supermassive]

@nabokovfan87 I already cut off the portions that looked bad and wedged it into some driftwood in another tank. I removed probably 40% of the plant. I could have removed more but I would've had to tear them apart into a bunch of small pieces. Ill keep it in my other tank for a couple months and watch it. Ill probably get another one to replace it in my main tank.

That's interesting. I didn't know anubias could do that. How are those tiny anubias looking now?

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/21/2023 at 2:32 PM, Supermassive said:

How are those tiny anubias looking now?

Oh they are feisty little buggers.  They never want to stay in place!  Probably don't look too much different, honestly, but they are still growing and doing their thing.

[mtnmonster]

Everyone's experience varies. I have decent amount of anubias in various tanks and I personally never seen rot spread to other plants, but maybe I'm just lucky so far. I trim off the rotting matter with an exacto knife and keep only healthy green rhizomes. Both my nanas and nana petites really bounced back surprisingly fast. Now my anubias coffeefolia is another story, after a year it's just as small as my nana petite. It's a tough thing to deal with anubias because they're slow growers. It frustrates me when I accidentally break one when cleaning lol

[Tanked]

On 12/7/2023 at 11:09 PM, mtnmonster said:

Everyone's experience varies. I have decent amount of anubias in various tanks and I personally never seen rot spread to other plants, but maybe I'm just lucky so far. I trim off the rotting matter with an exacto knife and keep only healthy green rhizomes. Both my nanas and nana petites really bounced back surprisingly fast. Now my anubias coffeefolia is another story, after a year it's just as small as my nana petite. It's a tough thing to deal with anubias because they're slow growers. It frustrates me when I accidentally break one when cleaning lol

Breaking one doesn't frustrate me as much as the lack of any growth.  I've intentionally cut my first Anubia rhizome twice.  There is something lodged in the Crypts, that looks like Anubia, so it may have been accidently divided two more times.  The parent plant also seems to go dormant for months or even a year at a time.  The youngest cutting is over six inches tall, while the parent plant and the first cutting remains the size of a quarter. 

[mtnmonster]

On 12/8/2023 at 9:39 AM, Tanked said:

Breaking one doesn't frustrate me as much as the lack of any growth.  I've intentionally cut my first Anubia rhizome twice.  There is something lodged in the Crypts, that looks like Anubia, so it may have been accidently divided two more times.  The parent plant also seems to go dormant for months or even a year at a time.  The youngest cutting is over six inches tall, while the parent plant and the first cutting remains the size of a quarter. 

Something I've noticed with my anubias is they will slowly but consistently grow for a few months then seem to go dormant for a long time. I recently pulled one anubias nana that never seemed to grow after a couple years. The rhizome had grown through a small hole in the driftwood it was attached to and was growing along the backside of the wood. It seemed like it was putting it's energy into rhizome growth and not new leaves. I also had a nana petite that I recently cut that had a couple of roots that acted as runners and had very tiny plants growing from them  3 inches away from the main plant. I also have some nana petite in one tank that have never grown.

For me anubias just seem to never die, but they seem to each have a mind of their own. They either grow or do nothing. My oldest is a 5 year nana that is about 4 inches long and has about 10 small leaves  and I have a nana petite I put in last year that was maybe a 2 inch plant that is now about a 4 inch bush and the rhizome has split to 3 different branches. 

As for anubias rot, I've noticed it usually happens with new plants or new cuttings. I read somewhere to use the sharpest blade I can to make cleaner cuts. Since I started using the exacto knife I've not seen it as much. 

[Tanked]

On 12/8/2023 at 1:00 PM, mtnmonster said:

As for anubias rot, I've noticed it usually happens with new plants or new cuttings. I read somewhere to use the sharpest blade I can to make cleaner cuts. Since I started using the exacto knife I've not seen it as much. 

A sharp blade slices; a dull blade crushes.  The cleaner the cut, the less opportunity for disease to take hold.  This was the first advice I was given when I first began pruning grape vines in the local vineyard.