# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Fungus killing Bacopa?



## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Hi all,

I have another







question regarding my newly "soiled"







tank.

I have a Bacopa species in there (not sure which even though it was sold as Monneri) that was doing just fine, but now it appears to have a fungus that's wiping out the leaves and spreading by contact.

There's a barely visible thready, filmy appearance on the dying leaves and it's not algae, I'm sure of that. It has no color whatsoever. It's like a cobweb appearance and the affected leaves turn to mush and fall off. I'm concerned because it seems to be spreading from plant to plant. I threw away all the mushy ones yesterday and now I'm seeing it on previously healthy Bacopa.

I've still got one bunch in another corner that's doing really well, putting out roots and staying nice and green.

Does anyone know what this is or what I could do about it? I'm not noticing it on other plants like crypts and java and sword, but I can't rule out that that's what happened to my bare hornwort too.









Thanks.


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## 10GALAQUATIC (Apr 18, 2005)

I don't know that is the same that I got on my lilly blubs or not. But for me the blubs seem to doing fine because they just send out leaves. I don't know that they do any harm to any other plant(it just grow on the blubs). I got these lilly blubs from Walmart a week or two. this is the pic


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

The Bacopa may be dying and bacteria and/or fungi are feeding off of it.

Aquatic plant diseases are extremely rare. I believe that there's something else going on in your tank. If the other plants are doing well, I wouldn't worry. 

You can expect some plant species to do poorly and others to thrive.


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Well, it's not as dramatic as your fungus, 10GALAQUATIC, but it's definitely attacking healthy plants, whatever it is. The Bacopa looks great until this stuff hits the leaves; other un-affected leaves on the plant still look very healthy.

I've kept healthy bacopa in this tank for almost a year.

Also, Diana, I did things differently than you recommend (and I don't recommend my method!







) and added soil to an existing tank and added dried clay balls too. I wonder if I didn't introduce a fungus with that clay or soil since you get alot of it in the water column when adding it this way.

Oh well, I added tons of plants today (cabomba, water sprite, water wisteria, ludwigia, dwarf sag) so, like you said, Diana, surely some of these many species will do well in my tank.
I threw out most of the Bacopa since the cobweb stuff is aggressively spreading among them. Thanks for your reply!


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## 10GALAQUATIC (Apr 18, 2005)

to day I look at my tank and surprised by some white spots spread on the drift wood. These spots look like spore or some kind of fungus that grow on the lilly blubs. Should I use medicine or how can I get rid of them naturally? My tank is so small(5gal) so they spread quite fast (yesterday I don't see any but this morning BOOOOM!). Should I concern about this fungus? I plan to add some cherry red shrimps in this tank. I already have 5 Otos they seem to be fine(right now).


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

This may be the very common white growth (fungal, I assume) that grows on newly submerged driftwood. You'll see many posts on this on aquarium forums. It's harmless and generally goes away within a month or so. I experienced it on my driftwood.

I wouldn't worry about anything growing on driftwood unless it's rotting.

My Bacopa is still urning to mush under fine "cobwebs." I added pond snails, maybe they will clean up the dead leaves and it will regenerate.

Ohhh, I just peeked at the infected Bacopa leaves and there are teeny, tiny perfectly round white spheres stuck to the leaves. Does this mean anything to anyone or sound familiar? I've had Bacopa for a year and never saw this or had problems with it.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

> Originally posted by javalee:
> The Bacopa looks great until this stuff hits the leaves; other un-affected leaves on the plant still look very healthy.
> 
> I added soil to an existing tank and added dried clay balls too. I wonder if I didn't introduce a fungus with that clay or soil.


Javalee,

I'm sure that you did add a fungus when you added soil. Like algae, fungus is everywhere. However, fungal diseases of aquatic plants are extremely rare.

In general, aquatic fungi just break down dead organic matter- they're part of the recycling system... not the pathogenic system.

Your Bacopa may be attacked by a rare amd unusual aquatic plant pathogen.

Keep us posted!


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

I'm keeping an eye on this stuff, and it only seems to affect the Bacopa. It's spreading by contact, it seems, among leaves that are touching one another. Reminds me of the spread of disease among forest trees. 

It looks like cobwebs or plain ol' thin, white fungus, and the leaf/stems underneath the "cobweb" disentigrate when touched. I keep pulling out the affected plants. The roots of these affected plants are still white and abundant and healthy so that leaves me unsure about whether or not I should just leave them in there and see if they put out leaves again. The other bacopa plants not touching the infected ones still look very good so I hope that, with thinning, this stuff will give up soon!


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

javalee: How about setting up a hospital tank for plants? Do you have an extra small tank laying around? Just set it up w/ the bacopa and see if it recovers. If it's a rare pathogen like Diana sugegested, I would think it's better to take it out and keep it by itself so it doesn't infect anything else.

-ricardo


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## Mr Fishies (Apr 9, 2006)

Since Bacopa can be grown emersed, is it possible this is the process of "conversion" to submerged plant?

Just a guess.

I don't know how all plant species react, but I have seen many posts talking about newly submerged plants losing all the leaves from their earlier terrestrial life.


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

Ricardo, I did just get a 1 gallon "tank." But I wonder if that would be even more stress on the plant, you know, uprooting it and moving it again into different water. It's an idea though, especially if it gets down to only a few uninfected plants in there. Now they are separated a bit more, not touching.

Fishies, I may not have mentioned it but the stems go mushy too where the fungus grows so I don't think it's a conversion (you have your thinking cap on though!). The leaves look really healty, then the fungus starts growing, the leaves look ok for a bit, then they droop, then they fall apart along with any part of the stem that has fungus on it---complete mush.

So it's not a case of the plant getting sick and then the fungus grows. The fungus grows and turns to mush everything it touches, while the rest of the plant stays green and roots white. Who knows? At least it's just Bacopa and not my other plants.

The only thing I have lost is all the time and frustration it took to make those babies stay in the gravel







. Now they have good roots and fungus on the crown! I'll keep your quarantine in mind Ricardo as I watch the remaining stems.

I'd like to post a picture of this tank soon anyway and get some comments and you can see! Thanks for the input everyone. If I make any discoveries about "cobweb/white-ball disease" I'll let you know.


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## javalee (May 8, 2006)

No more fungus! I kept pulling out and throwing away the infected plants since it seemed to spread from one plant to another, and I left spaces between the remaining plants and that seemed to stop it. Phew. It took out half my Bacopa before I realized I needed to cull the sick ones. Maybe this will help someone if they ever encounter "Bacopa Fungus."


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Yay!









-ricardo


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