Stunted Bacopa Caroliniana (Sp?)

[NOLANANO]

I have had Bacopa in my tank for the last 3 years and prior to the last couple of months I would have labeled this plant as indestructible.  What happened (I believe) is that I had the floating plant salvinia get over grown and essentially suck all the nutrients out of my water. I think this is what happened because it happened once before and when I removed the salvinia the stems started growing again. The first time it happened, I had some more sensitive stems that started to die prior to the Bacopa which tipped me off. While the Bacopa did stop growing the first time as well, they never turned brownish and lost leaves.  I have since removed the salvinia in its entirety but its been several weeks and the Bacopa has not recovers. The rest of my plants (various anubias, a couple of Crypts, Val, and Dwarf Sag) have all began to grow again but the Bacopa is being stubborn.

The lower portions of the stems have lost their leaves, the middle portions have leaves with holes in them, and the upper portion of the stems have full leaves but they are smaller than normal.  My tap water in New Orleans usually has enough nutrients in it to support easier plants and I use the occasional root tabs (although I usually concentrate then beneath the crypts and Grass plants). I have also started to use easy green once or twice a week.

My next idea is to cut the Bacopa stems down to where the leaves are whole and let them grow from there. Before I do that though, does that seem like a good idea or will I just have short stunted plants?

 

For a visual example, I went from the top picture of bacopa looking amazing in the middle to the bottom picture of Bacopa not looking great on the left.

[cmo1922]

Hello! I am digging your tank! I grow some bacopa caroliniana in one of my tanks and in my experience it is a slow grower, but I do not do CO2 injection. But looking at your pics, you have been much more successful than me growing this in the past☺️ so take what I say as general advice from a fellow low tech aquarium keeper (which it looka like you are).

I have similar things happen to me when fast growers like floaters, hornwort, wisteria, anarchis etc get out of hand. The slower growing stems like bacopa and mermaid weed just don't do as well, either due to shading, or out competition for nutrients/CO2.

Now that you have removed the likely culprit (floating plants), I would pull them up, cut off most of the bottom stem that lost the leaves, and replant the healthier tops. Make sure you plant in an unshaded area. And keep up with the ferts. Then see what happens! So your plan sounds good to me!

[Rube_Goldfish]

I agree with @cmo1922. After trimming off the new, healthy growth, you could plant them anywhere just to grow them up, or even float them for a time. @Guppysnail has used suction cup clips to keep stem plants near the light long enough for them to convert and/or grow.

But yes, discard the bad parts and replant the healthy bits.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

On 3/25/2024 at 11:02 AM, NOLANANO said:

I have had Bacopa in my tank for the last 3 years and prior to the last couple of months I would have labeled this plant as indestructible.  What happened (I believe) is that I had the floating plant salvinia get over grown and essentially suck all the nutrients out of my water. I think this is what happened because it happened once before and when I removed the salvinia the stems started growing again. The first time it happened, I had some more sensitive stems that started to die prior to the Bacopa which tipped me off. While the Bacopa did stop growing the first time as well, they never turned brownish and lost leaves.  I have since removed the salvinia in its entirety but its been several weeks and the Bacopa has not recovers. The rest of my plants (various anubias, a couple of Crypts, Val, and Dwarf Sag) have all began to grow again but the Bacopa is being stubborn.

The lower portions of the stems have lost their leaves, the middle portions have leaves with holes in them, and the upper portion of the stems have full leaves but they are smaller than normal.  My tap water in New Orleans usually has enough nutrients in it to support easier plants and I use the occasional root tabs (although I usually concentrate then beneath the crypts and Grass plants). I have also started to use easy green once or twice a week.

My next idea is to cut the Bacopa stems down to where the leaves are whole and let them grow from there. Before I do that though, does that seem like a good idea or will I just have short stunted plants?

 

For a visual example, I went from the top picture of bacopa looking amazing in the middle to the bottom picture of Bacopa not looking great on the left.

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @NOLANANO,

Stunted growth is usually the result of insufficient available nutrients.  The three (3) nutrients that can cause stunting are two of the macro-nutrients; nitrogen and/or, phosphorus, and the micro-nutrient zinc.  If this issue is phosphorus related typically the leaves will be a much darker green than normal.  If the issue is nitrogen related the leaves show chlorosis (yellowish) color as opposed to their normal green.  And if the issue is zinc related (which is not common) then the stems may have missing leaves and the internodes (distance between where leaves emerge from the stem) will be very short.

I downloaded your photo, enlarged it substantially, and this is what I saw.

The newer growth certainly appears yellowish to me.  You might also look at adding some magnesium to your tank based upon the interveinal chlorosis on the leaves of the anubias in the tank.

A good all-purpose fertilizer should get things back on track.  In your case I would recommend nilocg.com (aka NA) Thrive-C.  It has almost twice the magnesium of Easy Green and DTPA chelated iron so it will work in most pH levels.  Dose as recommended and watch the new growth (old growth will not change).  I believe you will see an improvement.  -Roy

[NOLANANO]

Thank you for the detailed response. I will order that fertilizer asap.

[NOLANANO]

@Seattle_Aquarist I wanted to come back and thank you. I purchased your recommended Fert and my plants look to be on the mend. They aren't perfect yet but they do have new very healthy looking growth!

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @NOLANANO,

Very glad to hear that, can you please share a couple of pictures showing the improvement? Thank you for the feedback. -Roy

[s_in_houston]

Just want to say I am a bystander and this post might just explain the “mysterious” decline of my aquarium starting just around the time I acquired frogbit. 

For me, bacopa caroliniana have been my stalwarts. Then around November 2023 I first noticed problems with their leaves. This is when I first acquired the frogbit. 

Problems persisted but I could also explain that by the move I made January this year. However, more than 4 months since laying down roots in my new home (pun sadly intended) I can say they’ve had time to adjust to any shock of a new environment and there’s something fundamentally wrong.