# Variegated Anubias nana "Petite"?



## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

Hey guys, so lately I've noticed several of my A. barteri var. nana "Petite" are gaining a variegated pattern on them. Anyone ever had this happen before?










All of these came directly from FAN about 4 months ago. I know that they "Petite" and not just baby A. nana "Marbled" because the new leaves are never more than 3/4" across.

High light (130W of CF) in a 20 long (the Anubias are fairly shaded)
Pressurized CO2
EI dosing
Soil-based substrate
kH and gH are both off the charts
pH - 7.8ish

Any ideas on why this is happening? I really like the marbled pattern, but I'm just curious if this has happened to anyone else.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

That's really pretty. Usually it's the other way around - a variegated going solid. You're lucky!


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

So....anyone know why this is happening? Do I have a new morph here, or is it just something with my tank that's causing them to gain the white coloring?


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## looking4roselines (May 10, 2008)

I think the environment may be a factor. I bought some regular nana petite from a lfs 2 years ago and new growth were variegated with white patterns on some of the leaves. They were grown in city tap water with diy co2 and no fert. They eventually grew out of variegation.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I've never seen that with mine. I would suggest moving it around multiple tanks, if you have them, or if you have a local club, letting some other member try it out on their tanks, and see if it persists. I hope it does! :thumbsup:


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

Yeah lego, I'm still on the "try out list" aren't I ?


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Neat! I have Anubias minima that has variegation on the 3 newer leaves (well, you can see it if you look past the GSA  ). I'm thinking it's the environment, but I guess you never know. Like TexGal said, even the "true" variegated forms will revert back to the parent form, though.

You and I both have hard water. I wonder if this could have something to do with it?

-Dave


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Its probably because of this: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ala-macrandra-narrow-morphing.html#post485156

Rare indeed.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

roselines - when I bought this it was completely green, but started to gain the variegation after about a month in the tank. Here's hoping that they keep the pattern!

Bert - I'm working on rescaping a 10g that will be with moderate lighting and low CO2, so I'm planning on moving one of these into that. We'll see what happens after a couple months.

Foofooree - Of course!

Dave - I've grown a lot of other A. petite before all in hard water, but this has never happened before. However, this is the first time I've grown it in really high light, CO2, and EI dosing with hard water, so it may be a possibility.

Zapins - Very interesting. Not sure I understood much of it, but it's interesting, all the same .

I'll keep you all updated on what happens with the plants. Hopefully the variegation doesn't fade away.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Hopefully this makes it easier to visualize what I was talking about. I realize I had way too many "its and itself's" in the same sentence


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Transposition is only one possible cause. As it's a somatic mutation there are many parts of the cellular mechanism that could malfunction in the cells that stop expressing the colour as well as a number of different ways in which alterations to the DNA could happen. It could also be an effect within either the nuclear chromosone or the choroplast genome. Whatever has caused it will have an effect on the stability as certain mutations would be more stable than transposition events or other things but the only way you know what has happened would be to do some very lengthy research to determine it!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Very true! Though if it reverts back to normal then it makes it more likely that it was transposons causing it. Interesting stuff!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I really gotta get some of these variegated _Anubias_ that seem to be showing up in the hobby. 'Stardust' looks like a really cool plant. I heard that the variegation of that one is much more pronounced emersed than immersed.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I bet variegated anubias grow impossibly painfully slowly (since they have less chlorophyll and therefore less energy to grow) haha.


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> I really gotta get some of these variegated _Anubias_ that seem to be showing up in the hobby. 'Stardust' looks like a really cool plant. I heard that the variegation of that one is much more pronounced emersed than immersed.


I can vouch for this. I'm not sure why, but my marbled anubias looks a lot cooler emersed. The new leaves that grow immersed hardly have any variegation at all.


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

Zapins said:


> I bet variegated anubias grow impossibly painfully slowly (since they have less chlorophyll and therefore less energy to grow) haha.


It grows about the same IME


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## snail_chen (Dec 4, 2009)

Yeah, I learned some genetics. But somebody says it is due to virus?


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