Can anubius be propagated through leaves alone?

Have been doing some deep cleaning and plant work during a large water change on my 15.5g tank with pygmy cories, otos, and endlers (right now, endlers will likely be going, or at least moved for now).

I had a lovely anubius coffeefolia in there, and there's still some in the base plant (it's still in it's pot), but some parts of it had rotted, and lost a lot of leaves as a result.

I removed the rotting parts, and the rotted leaves (tank smelled pretty bad, a lot of thick green algae and wood etc was shading and choking out the anubius) but have several leaves that look and feel normal, but have obviously fallen from the rotted part of the main plant.

I think that the answer is going to be no, that it can only be propagated by extending from the rhizome, but since all sorts of outdoor plants can be propagated from cuttings, or a leaf or two, figured it was worth asking! Whether if left in water or planted in rockwool (I have a plant propagating kit I got when my LFS closed down for a bargain price) whether it could work, or whether to just remove and bin them.

Thank you! Tank is looking and smelling much better now anyway.

I've never had any rhizomes develop for the many Anubias leaves my plants have lost over the years, from several Anubias species...

I wish.

GaryE said:

I've never had any rhizomes develop for the many Anubias leaves my plants have lost over the years, from several Anubias species...

I wish.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured as much! Nevermind, figured it didn't hurt to ask! Just have to hope the main plant survives then. Chucked some ferts in there too.

I think roots will sprout if you have enough of the stem there. I toss all of my anubias scraps into an unheated container that sits on my window ledge. I just went over to my container to see if anything was sprouting that I could take a picture of for you and I found some. I honestly cannot tell you if this particular piece was along stem or if there were actually a piece of rhizome there, but there is a very tiny rizome starting on this plant now. Here are some pics. Let me see if I can find another one.

Well, I cleaned out my little container and it’s no longer full of green water, much easier to see what’s in there now now. I did take an annubias out last month and attach it to a piece of driftwood. I only found one other piece and this one had a larger piece of rhizome. This one might’ve been a piece of rhizome tossed in the container.

I would say put that leaf if it has a long enough stem and stick it in some water and forget about it for about six months then go check it out and see if it’s got any roots coming out of it. I swear I’ve been able to generate a nest from a long leaf stem with the leaf attached and in great condition. If you got one that’s partially rotting, it might not do anything for you. Good luck.

Aqua67 said:

I think roots will sprout if you have enough of the stem there. I toss all of my anubias scraps into an unheated container that sits on my window ledge. I just went over to my container to see if anything was sprouting that I could take a picture of for you and I found some. I honestly cannot tell you if this particular piece was along stem or if there were actually a piece of rhizome there, but there is a very tiny rizome starting on this plant now. Here are some pics. Let me see if I can find another one. View attachment 335186

Click to expand...

Aqua67 said:

Well, I cleaned out my little container and it’s no longer full of green water, much easier to see what’s in there now now. I did take an annubias out last month and attach it to a piece of driftwood. I only found one other piece and this one had a larger piece of rhizome. This one might’ve been a piece of Rolice tossed in the container.

I would say put that leaf if it has a long enough stem and stick it in some water and forget about it for about six months then go check it out and see if it’s got any roots coming out of it. I swear I’ve been able to generate a nest from a long leaf stem with the leaf attached and in great condition. If you got one that’s partially rotting, it might not do anything for you. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Oh wow! That's awesome. Definitely worth a shot at least! Glad I hadn't removed those leaves from the tank yet. I have a little 5g that's empty right now, could easily pop them in there in a window and see what happens.

Thanks for the encouragement, your plants look really healthy! I'll give it a go, can't do any harm, and will update the thread if anything comes of it, or if it fails, I'll try to remember to update either way.

I don't think it will grow without at least a little bit of the rhizome.

I once had anubias in a similar state to what you describe. Figuring I had nothing to lose I cut away all the bad bits, removed all the leaves and chucked what was left back into the tank. That way I would not have to remember to water them and they were getting nutrients. There were a few pieces. I simply forgot about them and some months later discovered several free floating anubias with fresh rhizomes an new leaves. They only started floating when the new leaves grew.

I found an anubias leaf floating around my angelfish aquarium yesterday and I left it floating amongst my dwarf water lettuce which isn’t doing so well in that tank. I took a couple of pictures of the stem from different angles and I will check on its progress and report back. It doesn’t appear to have much of any rhizome attached, just the carved out portion of the stem you’d expect if you pulled a leaf off of a plant. I blame my Siamese algae eater as that fish is kind of rough on my plants, just from vigorously swimming around. I don’t think it is intentional on the Siamese algae eater’s part.