# are my anacharis still alive? pics



## newguy (Mar 18, 2006)

just an update, my hornworts are doing great however the anacharis are all dying or dead. Please see pics below, should i just remove them from my tank altogether? are they dead or still alive?


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## TetraFreak (Mar 15, 2006)

Looks like you either don't have enough light for them or there's something missing in the water column as far as ferts/minerals go.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

They are still quite alive. Give them more time to produce new shoots and then roots. As long as the stems are green, they are alive.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

What are your tank parameters? Seems your other plants are growing well, so it is more likely to be an anacharis specific problem. 

Keep in mind anacharis is a cold water plant and does not like warm water.


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## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

Also remember that Seachem's Florish Excel can cause poor growth/death of anacharis.

-Dustin


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Anacharis needs much more light than Hornwort does. Without enough light the stems turn to mush, never grow roots, rot from the bottom up. Anacharis, Egeria, Elodea, has been sold for decades by shops particularly with goldfish. It usually ends up being salad for the fish. Many of these people even thought this plant never grew roots and was a floating plant. With lots of light it grows massive root systems and covers the bottom in a thick mat. It then becomes a very fast grower and pearls steady streams of oxygen, which is why it is often sold as an "oxygenator" for ponds. Without intense light it becomes green gumbo

A closely related plant, Egeria najas is much less light intensive.


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## newguy (Mar 18, 2006)

thanks guys, trimmed all the anacharis so only the bare stems are left, while trimming off all the leaves i noticed a few stem had new shots coming out which i happily left it alone.

So now they are back in my tank mostly just bare stems. I was dosing with flourish excel but stopped immediately with large water changes after been told about the problem with anacharis (seachem really needs to put some bold red letters on the bottle!! what the heck..)

My light is 2 WPG using the coralife aqualight strip. Is that enough for anacharis? i was under the impression those are easy stem plants. You guys think it would be a good idea to buy a SECOND light strip? so to have both lightstrip on the tank. Creating about 4WPG. 

On a happier note my dwarf hairgrass (parv) from singapore are growing nicely for some reason, i noticed new shoots spawning all around my initial planted pots. Ironic considering those are the most difficult plants in my tank and i was certain they would die. 

To summarize:

hornowrt - doing good
ancharis - bare stem, not good
dwarf hairgrass - doing great!
anubias nana / petite - not so good, leaves are turning bright green from dark green. And falling off or turning black around the edges. (yes i made sure their ryzme is exposed). So much for the nickname plastic plants... could it be too much light? they are in the middle of my tank without any cover from the direct light.

/ramble off


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