aquatic plants... growth rate by temperature???

[Magnum Man]

it would seem to make sense that plants would grow faster in warmer water, but have read discussions that at Discus friendly temperatures, often plants struggle... for the sake of this discussion, let's talk just anubias, so we are at least talking about the same family of plants... I'll be watching, as I have a couple cooler water tanks, that I keep at just over 70 degrees F., and the bulk of my tanks are just under 80 degrees F.

similar water, and light situations ... I have some nana in both type tanks, other wise the rest are all assorted varieties... thoughts on growth rate differences on the nana between the 2 temperatures???

 

[GaryE]

I've had plants simply break up and rot at high temperatures. That includes Anubias, which I think is congoensis. I'm no Discus keeper, but had Geophagines from warm water for a long time, and found Anubias didn't thrive. Bolbitis seemed fine though.

I was able to get the temperature in the one stream I saw Anubias growing submersed in Gabon, and it was 22c. But that was one day in one season.

There's one way to find out. Let us know what you get from this.

 

[Sgooosh]

it would seem to make sense that plants would grow faster in warmer water, but have read discussions that at Discus friendly temperatures, often plants struggle... for the sake of this discussion, let's talk just anubias, so we are at least talking about the same family of plants... I'll be watching, as I have a couple cooler water tanks, that I keep at just over 70 degrees F., and the bulk of my tanks are just under 80 degrees F.

similar water, and light situations ... I have some nana in both type tanks, other wise the rest are all assorted varieties... thoughts on growth rate differences on the nana between the 2 temperatures???

I have a big Anubias nana in my tank, and for me, they grow much better in summer, though there is melt in spring. Since it gets so hot here (80)f other things don’t do well but I have found that crypts and anubias do well

 

[CassCats]

I've had anubias boom in temperatures 76-78 range. Except i could never keep some varieties and i had given up on them in the past.

Now most of my anubias are kept at 72-73 in my goldfish tank. They grow steady still, but I am finding it variety dependent.

I find of anubias, golden nana grows the fastest. I have not noticed a difference in it's growth in warm vs colder though, but I also did not pay too much attention to that.

It would be interesting to see if you see a difference


I will say, my stargrass i notice doesn't seem to do as great in warmer temperatures. It stalls in growth. But, in my Paraguay tank where it's kept at 73, it grows like an insane weed.

And Potamogeton gayi will not thrive for me in warmer tanks, it melts off. Ive had most success with it kept under 75. Again though, this is a plant that comes from the very far south areas of south america, where it's much colder than further north.


A nice thing is to check the environment some of our plants come from, a lot of the very hot discus areas are too tannin stained or murky to grow much submerged plants--most are terrestrial growing around it and the water being really barren except perhaps algae.

Sources such as Encyclopedia of Life, GBIF, and iNaturalist are fantastic for searching up species and seeing exact locations people have documented them at.

 

[Back in the fold]

I have an Amazon Swordplant that has been growing fine for nearly four years in an unheated aquarium and nothing other than light from a north facing window that it sits by . It isn’t a spectacular plant and is just “ okay “ but it’s growing . Want to see a plant really crap out ? Put Anacharis in warm water .

 

[CassCats]

I have an Amazon Swordplant that has been growing fine for nearly four years in an unheated aquarium and nothing other than light from a north facing window that it sits by . It isn’t a spectacular plant and is just “ okay “ but it’s growing . Want to see a plant really crap out ? Put Anacharis in warm water .

Especially the northern native species! Canadensis goes caput lol

 

[anewbie]

I find that so far plants grow pretty well in my discus aquarium (82-84); as long as i remember to give them some food; i unintentionally carpeted the thing in less than 6 months without co2 inejection. I keep this aquarium with an ec around 20 and ph around 4.9 - while I think there might be variance in anubia species and how they respond to heat remember that a lot of them come from very warm areas of africa. However i've not dug into anubias as i have other genus.

As for your comment there is a wide variance in both temperature and water condition people keep discus so a simple summary such as yours (opening statement) i would find not that useful unless specific temperature and water condition were included. Heckel discus for example are going to be in the high 80s and a lot of folks push young discus to grow as fast as possible which includes ....

Anyway you get my point.

If you research plants there are some that will do exceptionally well in warm water such as a. cripus and barclay.

You asked about anubias but as i mentioned i have never dwelled into individual species of the genus so cannot comment further.

 

[emeraldking]

My experience with plants and temperatures is that it really depends on the type of plant if it thrives well when the water temperature is lower or higher. Same goes if we speak about the type of Anubia.