Spiderwood Sprouting Aquatic Leaves?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

What’s up everyone? I hope you’re having a great Saturday evening. 
 

I was checking out my Pea Puffer tank, and noticed what appears to be a piece of Spiderwood sprouting some leaves. I’ve had my 14 tanks for 4 years at this point, I use a lot of Spiderwood, and I’ve never seen anything like it. Check it out:

Have you ever had this happen? Ever read of anything like this happening? I’m just super curious and wanted to share with you guys and gals. If you’ve seen this before, or know what it is please let me know!

[CoryWithAKatana]

I have seen some crazy cases of drift wood coming back to life so I am not surprised!

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@CoryWithAKatana that’s wild! Definitely never heard of it. It’s one of those things that seems impossible, yet I see it happening right in front of me lol. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I went back in my photo album and found when I set this tank up. 05/25/21. This is the first picture I have of the tank, and you can tell it was just barely set up from all the bubbles all over the tank. Check the time stamp on this photo:

Here we are a couple of days later on 05/28/21 when I did a little bit more to the tank and initially stocked it:

Below I’ve circled where the sprout is now coming out of:

Apparently if you leave a piece of Spiderwood in a tank for 3.25 years you can get a tiny little sprout, lol. We’ll keep our eyes on it and see what happens. 

[Guppysnail]

This seems incredibly cool. However very unlikely especially after that much time. 
Had there ever been a small anubias in the tank with that wood?  A stray root attaching seems more plausible.

@OnlyGenusCaps is this true leaves growing spontaneously from the wood?  It would be so very cool 😎 

[mynameisnobody]

I had something similar happen, it looked like parsley was sprouting out of the spiderwood. After a couple of months, it was gone. I’ve also had sponges and fungi grow out of random driftwood. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 8/18/2024 at 5:08 AM, Guppysnail said:

Had there ever been a small anubias in the tank with that wood?

There is a piece of Anubias in here, but not a small variety. I too tried to find every logical explanation for this, and haven’t found it yet. The leaf structure is unlike any plant in this tank, and there’s no root or anything around this little sprout. Just a little sprout straight out of the wood from what I can tell so far. 
 

Obviously gonna keep my eyes on it and see what happens. 

[Guppysnail]

Please keep us updated. I’m fascinated 

[shawnkissed]

I'm no expert but it does look like Anubias. I had something similar happen to me. A piece of the Anubias rhizome broke off, landed in a crevice in my driftwood and started growing. They're slow growers so it was a while before I saw the leaves.

[Woowala]

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My money's on anubias as well.  Would be cool if it wasn't though.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Personally, I would be shocked if it was Anubias. Albeit less shocked than random sprouts of whatever it is. 
 

I had my girlfriend looking with me last night, and it really looks like there’s independent little leaves coming from this one spot. No roots, no rhizome, etc. I’ll keep y’all updated!

[Woowala]

Well you definitely have the best look at it.  My next guess is some terrestrial seed that made its way in.

I guess it could be Rhododendron, which I just now learned is where spiderwood comes from.

[EricksonAquatics]

Dang! That’s honestly awesome. It’ll be interesting to see what it does. I swear my spider wood is growing roots, but it’s also brand new and is probably just biofilm lolz. 
Wouldn’t be surprised if it actually is growing from the wood. Makes sense that it could sort of go “dormant” for a long time and randomly decides to pop up again. Wonder what could have triggered that though?

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@EricksonAquatics So, when someone mentioned they’ve seen, or heard, of other similar things, I started looking online. There was a Reddit thread where Spiderwood WAS indeed growing roots out of it. Spiderwood is just a root, so I could see how if it wasn’t completely dried out how it could start to grow roots. Still wild, though. 
 

I was able to snap a picture from the side of the tank:

I think this illustrates pretty well that the leaves are sprouting straight out the side of the piece of Spiderwood. No other roots, no rhizome, etc. It’s straight up sprouting out of the wood. 
 

Let me know what you guys think!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 8/18/2024 at 5:12 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

Wonder what could have triggered that though?

This is also the part that has me confused. Nothing has changed in this tank. That piece of wood has literally been in the same spot since 05/2021 when I set the tank up. I’m a little dumbfounded, but ultimately extremely curious as to what this is!

[johnnyxxl]

Nutrients could have changed 

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 8/19/2024 at 3:41 AM, johnnyxxl said:

Nutrients could have changed

I see where you’re going, but this tank has been the same since it has been set up. I focus a lot on consistency. With food(s) and amounts, with water changes and amounts, with ferts, with co2, etc. I try to keep my environments as stable as possible. 
 

Not saying it’s not possible, I’m just saying I would be surprised if there was a change big enough to cause this wild thing to happen 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

The saga strolls along. I’ve continued to keep an eye, and still don’t have an answer. 
 

At this time, I still believe that it is sprouting from the Spiderwood. All I can do is continue to look and report what I see. 
 

Here’s a couple fresh pics I just snapped:

From the front, it still basically looks the same. There is a third leaf on the underside, but I can’t get a decent picture through the glass and at the right angle. Being at the bottom of the tank, the leaves being small, and the distortion of the glass it’s just near impossible. This picture is actually zoomed out to 0.7x as at 1x the camera doesn’t want to focus on the leaves. 
 

This is from the side of the tank. Zoomed in 5x. Here, you can see the third leaf that I cannot get from the front. Still looks like it’s sprouting straight from the wood. Where it looks like it possibly could be a rhizome, or possibly a fourth leaf (roughly 10 o’clock if you put a standard 12 hour clock around the center of the sprout) that is just a tiny, natural piece of the Spiderwood. Spiderwood is just roots, after all, so I believe that was a tiny “hair” root when this wood was alive. 
 

I wish I had an answer, but at this time I do not. The leaves don’t seem like they’re substantially bigger. We’ll keep an eye on it, though! What do you guys and gals think?

Edited September 1 by AllFishNoBrakes

[MWilk]

Why not pull the wood out and look at it closely? It doesn’t appear to be structural.  

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 9/1/2024 at 5:54 PM, MWilk said:

It doesn’t appear to be structural.  

It’s not structural, but there is Anubias and a bunch of Java Fern intertwined between the wood and the rock. I don’t want to tear up all the rhizomes on Java Ferns that barely grow for me just to see what this lil’ sprout is. Great question, though!

Kinda hard to see, but that Java Fern runs the entire left side and up the arch of this piece of Spiderwood 

[MWilk]

That’s one of the longest rhizomes I think I’ve ever seen. Very nice. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

On 9/1/2024 at 9:45 PM, MWilk said:

That’s one of the longest rhizomes I think I’ve ever seen. Very nice.

Lol, thanks! That bad boy has been growing for a couple years at this point. Kind of ironic that it’s a Java Fern that “barely grows”, yet has the longest rhizome. Just funny, and proves that perspective is everything.