# Tiny white spots on anubias nana



## christian_cowgirlGSR (Jun 20, 2011)

Hello all!

There are tiny white spots on the leaves of my anubias nana and it's starting to lose several of the leaves (they're starting to turn brown).

*Background:* It's in a 10 gallon tank with two 10W "mini" flourescent bulbs. The bulbs have been on the tank for about a week. Previously, I had two 15W incandescent bulbs. I've also recently added some new plants to the tank. I ordered a marimo ball, anubias afzelii, anubias nana "petite", and java fern 'windelov' from one seller. All of the leaves, except for a couple very small leaves, were brown on the afzelii when it arrived. I notified the seller and put it in my tank, hoping it would recover. The anubias petite had brown around the edges when it arrived and proceeded to lose ALL of it's leaves in the first day or two after I got it. The java fern 'windelov' had quite a bit of brown on it when it arrived and continued to turn more brown in the next couple of days. The marimo ball was green when it arrived and has changed colors of green but is still green. From a separate seller, I got brazilian pennywort and rotala rotundifolia, both of which are green and doing well. From a third seller, I also got some java fern 'narrow leaf', which had quite a few brown spots and broken leaves when it arrived. I cut off the dead/dying leaves and put it in the tank. It had some hay-like stuff in the roots that I tried to rinse out but has since littered my tank. Therefore, I've been doing a 20-30% water changed every-other day trying to rid my tank of the excess debris brought in by the new plants. The java fern 'narrow leaf' has been doing well, but still has brown spots on some leaves (I didn't cut all of the leaves with brown spots off). It is showing a little bit of new growth.

The other plants in the tank include some assorted aponogetons (bulbs from Wal-Mart), assorted dwarf water lilies (bulbs from Wal-Mart), sagittaria subulata (recently added fertilizer tabs to the tank for them), and some java moss. All of these plants are doing well.

After the anubias petite lost all of it's leaves, my snails (pomacea bridgesii) started chowing down on the rhizome of the petite. I found this very strange as they leave my anubias nana and all my other plants alone. In an attempt to salvage what was left of the anubias petite, I moved it to a one gallon tank with a light. I also cut all the dead leaves off the java fern 'windelov' rhizomes and put the rhizomes in the 1 gallon tank as well, even though most of the 'windelov' rhizomes are completely brown.

Do you think I've brought some sort of anubias disease into my tank with the two anubias species that weren't doing well? Any suggestions for what I should do to help the anubias nana?


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## christian_cowgirlGSR (Jun 20, 2011)

Here's the best picture I could get of the white spots, and they're still kinda hard to see. You can also see where some of the leaves are starting to turn brown.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Tiny silvery spots like these You can find also on healthy submersed Cryptocoryne, Bucephalandra or Schismatoglottis leaves. Outside of the water they are not visible. I believe the spots are stomata (the pores for gas exchange) looking silvery in the water because of the air behind them. One could check it with a microscope.


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## christian_cowgirlGSR (Jun 20, 2011)

So they're nothing to worry about? It's odd that I've never noticed them before...

Thanks for your response!


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