Anubias Rhizome issue

[egruttum]

I have two anubias plants in my 20 gallon.  My anubias nana (kind of shown in upper right of picture) looks great.  This anubias looks like the rhizome is dying.  It's either an anubias congensis or frazeri anubias (I forget which one, I planted both but one died a week in).  I've had this in my aquarium for about a month now.  All other plants look great (java ferns, Amazon sword, hornwort, stem plants) but this one has begun going downhill.  I dose two pumps of Easy Green every week.  Am I doing something wrong? Should I pull it so it doesn't do something bad to my other plants?  Thank you.

Edited March 11, 2021 by egruttum
Added that you can see my anubias nana a little bit

[KBOzzie59]

Possible early stages of anubias rot, more info here.

 

[egruttum]

Thanks.  Sounds like there is not much I can do.  Looks like it's time to play and see what happens.  I'm going to try making it emersed and see what happens.

[lefty o]

its green, and has new leafs coming up. just watch it, i dont think it has a problem.

[egruttum]

I pulled it and it has a rotten smell to it.  I'm going to play with it emersed.  It's currently soaking in a peroxide solution.  I'll add soil to cover the roots and keep the rhizome in the air.  I plan to cover the glass container to keep humidity up.  Worst case scenario it continues to die.  Best case scenario it lives, I patent it, and get rich from the AC forum!

[Celly Rasbora]

Can you ID where it is rotten? I would suggest cutting out the rotten spot, as it will continue to spread to healthy portions of the plant.

[egruttum]

To me it looks and feels rotten on the far left end and under the leaf on the right side.  Both areas are yellowish and the rhizome used to be bright green.  Something has changed.  Tomorrow I think I will treat it like a terrestrial epiphyte and try to dry out the rhizome a little bit while keeping the roots moist in soil. I have anything to lose.

[Jungle Fan]

I would remove the plant from the tank for the sake of your other Anubias just in case it is Anubias rot for which the cause is still unclear but it is suspected to be either a bacteria, or virus. If you have a quarantine tank, or even just a deeper tupperware container I would set it up in it tied to a piece of lava rock after removing any dying leaves, or mushy, or rotten pieces of the rhizome first, then I would provide light, ferts, and  if you have a source CO2 but it isn't absolutely necessary. I have propagated  Anubias that way from a few of my larger Anubias, even some from a tank once that had been overgrown by algae and I was given the plant "if I wanted it". I had removed all leaves due to how badly damaged they were, and even though it was just the bare rhizome chopped up into multiple pieces of 1' to 2", each grew new leaves and recovered and became a new plant over time. Anubias are extremely resilient, however if it is Anubias rot then there is no known cure and at the very least you will have kept it from spreading to your healthy Anubias plants.

I would advise against drying it out and putting more stress on a plant already under duress by adding conversion from submersed to emersed state to it.

Edited March 12, 2021 by Jungle Fan

[egruttum]

Thanks @Jungle Fan for the info.  I have removed it from my aquarium but don't have a quarantine tank yet to put it in.  Its a small Anubias and cost like $3 bucks.  There looks to be quite a bit of rot on it so I am going to play with it.  If it was much bigger or much more expensive I would definitely take your advice on what to try.  The weird thing is the leaves look great, its just the rhizome that is rotting.  So I guess only time will tell.

 

[Jungle Fan]

I would probably try and just cut the rotten piece off and see what happens to the rest of the rhizome, if it is the rhizome throughout I would toss it because in that case even the leaves will rot eventually.

As I said it doesn't need to be a full blown quarantine tank it can be a tupperware container, a large glass, vase, ...and since Anubias is a low light plant you don't necessarily even need a light as long as you don't place it directly into the sunniest window, ferts will help though and depending on size of container you might want to change water frequently and add dechlorinator like Prime, the water change to prevent algae, the Prime for the benefit of the plant tissue. The only reason I mentioned lava rock was because I have an abundance of it at hand but it can be any type rock just because Anubias usually does better when tied, or glued to rock, or wood. That would be my scenario for my kind of playing with it, not expensive, just  a let's see what happens approach.