# Holes, "bruises" on anubias



## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

The first hole opened up a couple of days ago, I thought that one of my plecos had just decided on an anubias salad. Today I saw the beginnings of more damage. The spots on the leaves are dark and soft like bruised fruit. After this the spots are developing into holes as seen in the last photo - I'm sure that my plecos and SAEs are helping this along.

Any idea what might cause this?

(ignore the cuts in the first photo - these were here when I got the plant)


----------



## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

Nobody has anything?

How about just a guess?


----------



## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

I dont know what the problems is but I hope you figure out what is wrong. Those where some cool looking anubias. It is impossible to kill my anubias so I cant suggest anything. It might be a defficency. I would try dosing extra micros. If that doesnt help then extra phosphate.... I know you use pressurized co2 and you have a 96w cf so the anubias should be fine in those departments. Good luck.


----------



## yildirim (Nov 25, 2004)

My guesses would be far away from any nutrient defficiencies as I can't recognise any similarities with known defficiency damages and yours. So what I can tell are;
- Very big changes in its environment regarding to light (shading) and heat after a relocation.
- They could be exposed to open air, out of the tank for a little long time then they could tolerate (esp the upper leaf of the latest overall picture)


----------



## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

Thanks for the responses so far.

I just wanted to reply to the points raised.

Ferts should be in good standing. N:10ppm, P:1ppm, K: dosed regularly, micros: 5ml flourish 3x/week

KH is 5, GH 15. If I'm to beleive the CO2/KH charts I have CO2 concentration of 60ppm (yes, I know they can be way off).

The first plant has been in the tank for almost 3 weeks, the second a week and a half - the spots just started to develop about 3 days ago. The plants have not been out of the water for any mentionable period of time.

The spot mentioned which looks like a burn is actually the area of the first damage I saw on the leaves - the damage you can see is the aftermath since that area has melted.


----------



## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I've never experienced that with Anubias. I would probably suggest what Yildirim said, it being some kind of reaction to an environmental change which just took time to develop. I assume, you've checked out the rhizome and it's in good shape?


----------



## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

*Update*

Things aren't looking any better. The only thing I can think is I must have some contaminant in my water. I'm going to do a very large water change in a few minutes.

Here's what the plant is looking like now (48 hours after the first pic).


----------



## Burks (May 25, 2006)

I'm getting similar holes and bruises on my Amazon Sword. No clue where they are coming from as nothing new has been added to the tank for weeks.

Guess I'll follow your lead and do a water change as well.


----------



## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

I couldnt think of any specific nutrient defficency but since he has had them for a couple of weeks I figured it wasnt an adjusting thing. I also have a hard time thinking of any solution except those suggested by yildrim since the other plants and fish arent affected. I cant think of any toxins that only affect anubias plants not fish or other plants. Maybe the change of water is just now taking affect.

That deteriorated pretty fast. I hope thats just that leaf dying and not a sign of the whole plant dying. Good luck.


----------



## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

Ok I cant remember who the origional poster of this was (or I would give credit , sorry) but this site has a tonne of info on anubias.

http://toptropicals.com/html/toptropicals/articles/aqua/anubias_en.htm

But heres a blurb from it that *may* explain holes. I had anubias develop holes myself, and was stumped too. So they could be right.



toptropicals.com said:


> 1. They not only can survive in shadows, they even prefer shadow conditions. In extreme light (about one watt per liter or more) they develop highly deformed, strangely shaped leaves.
> 
> 2. In the water that is too rich in organic material anubias leaves may develop holes in them, so you must look after the condition of the aquarium. This happens when you don't regularly "vacuum" the ground, or overfeed the fish,
> 
> ...


Your tank looks pretty clean, and free of detrius. So I don't know, but it did inspire me to tear my tank down and get every bit of detrius and gravel vac every inch. Could be the summer heat? or I could be way off base. I just want to help. I love anubias I started with 1 bunch now I have so much I'm not sure how to scape with it  Good luck


----------



## yildirim (Nov 25, 2004)

Hi agn,

First I would like to say that after seeing the latest picture you send (which was the first one of the three at your first post) that leaf also started to look just like the third picture of your first post which has been reference of my previous post. Now I definitely agree with my previos suggestions (and I would like to know full history of the plant if available) and I can tell you that there is nothing you can do to stop the deterioration currently underway. You will loose the leaves slowly but don't worry plant will survive anyway. Now what you can do to slow the dying of the damaged leaves is get a small and if possible curved scissor and cut out the badly damaged parts of the leaves without further damaging the healthy parts. This way you may even save some of the leaves with just a little changed shape. And last, regarding to the post of t-bone, I may comment that I totaly agree with 1of3. For 3of3 I can say that it is accurate but also mechanical damages to the growing tips are much commonly observed for this kind of growth pattern. Also that 40 C for greenhouses are a bit lover at our tanks and that is around 34-35 C. But for 2of3 I can say that I definitely disagree with it, in fact according to my observations it is exactly vise versa.


----------



## T-Bone (Nov 23, 2005)

I agree the temp reaching 40C is highly unlikely. Maybe the article wont help at all perhaps it will. I just wanted to offer up a possibility.  Anubias are fairly expensive, so I'd hate to see someone lose some.

For 2 of 3 I was suprised to see how much organic material (detrius I think they are talking about) was behind my rocks and driftwood. I regularly gravel vac with a python. It is just hard to reach some areas. This was just my personal expierience. Not saying Cwlodarczyk has a dirty tank, it looks quite clean. Just a thought.


----------



## 247Plants (Mar 23, 2006)

I can attest that his tank is pristine and Im jealous of how clean his tank is.....

Thanks for hosting the meeting Carl!!!


----------



## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

Here's something interesting...

I happened to find the same site mentioned earlier on my own and read about the problem with buildup of organic material. Some of my fish at the same time also started exhibiting some problems that could be traced back to the same cause.

The first thought I had was "well, maybe one of my filters is dirty"... so I pulled both canisters off the tank. To my surprise one of them was quite clean, but the other was full of sludge. Somehow in my maintenance I hadn't cleaned this filter in several months - and I must have cleaned the other one 2 or 3 times.

Anyways, filters are clean now and I did a 75% water change last night. The fish are looking better and it doesn't seem that the damage to the anubias is continuing to spread.

I don't know if this was the true cause, just something that may be relevant.


----------



## jassar (Jul 30, 2006)

Why not just trimm the damaged leaves? surely it will not hurt the Anubia.


----------



## cwlodarczyk (Sep 18, 2005)

jassar said:


> Why not just trimm the damaged leaves? surely it will not hurt the Anubia.


Since my last post I actually have trimmed back the leaves with the worst damage but the idea really was to find the root cause in order to prevent it from continuing / happening again.


----------



## jassar (Jul 30, 2006)

Ah, i got your point 
-Jassar


----------

