What is eating my anubias?

[gksch]

My anubias suddenly started to get brow. I notice that a small brow spot forms and the leaves start to die. I see the shrimps (neocaridinas) On it and in the morning a big chunk of the leaf is gone. As far as I know, neocaridinas only eat deceased leaves, so something must be damaging the leaves. On the tank I have a giant betta, two Nerite snails and about 20 neocaridina shrimps (5 adults and some babies).

anyone got any suggestion?

 

[AilyNC]

Is it nutrient deficiency? Do you use a fertilizer?

 

[Stan510]

Its a lack of nutrients,the leaves get browned and the shrimp seem to like eating that.

Iron is what seems to cure everything. To me,iron cures other problems like potassium by making the plant healthy and able to draw out the other micronutrients out of the water. Those Anubias because of a lack of iron are unable to metabolize potassium I guess is another way of saying it.

 

[vanalisa]

Its a lack of nutrients,the leaves get browned and the shrimp seem to like eating that.

Iron is what seems to cure everything. To me,iron cures other problems like potassium by making the plant healthy and able to draw out the other micronutrients out of the water. Those Anubias because of a lack of iron are unable to metabolize potassium I guess is another way of saying it.

Best way to add iron?
Liquid ferts or tabs?

 

[BoomerXIV]

Best way to add iron?
Liquid ferts or tabs?

Anubias doesnt really get benefits from tabs, so go with liquid ferts

 

[BoomerXIV]

Oh wait, @vanalisa you probably talk about plants in general right?

 

[Stan510]

Seachem's iron is the best. You can see results in 3 days or less. I tried home and garden iron and never really noticed a difference. If anything I suspect the garden iron made some fish sick..slowly.
As always with chemicals use as least as you need.
Unless its dechlore for water changes..don't be skimpy on that!

 

[vanalisa]

Oh wait, @vanalisa you probably talk about plants in general right?

Yes, in general.
And also
Yes, because I have an Anubius
And also
Yes, because my Anubius looks like that !

 

[gksch]

Is it nutrient deficiency? Do you use a fertilizer?

I do. I use Flourish once a week and flourish excell every day, both according to the manufacturer instructions. I will try to increase a little bit the Flourish and see if that helps.

thank you everybody for the answer. I am glad it’s something “simple” and not a disease.

 

[Stan510]

Flourish has a low percentage of iron. So,might as well buy the real thing. You will notice the difference faster.

 

[gksch]

Will do. Thank you

 

[Essjay]

I use .......... flourish excell every day

Flourish Excel is not good for a tank with livestock in. It's main ingredient is glutaraldehyde, a powerful disinfectant. Anything that is used for sterilising surgical equipment and in embalming fluid won't do fish, shrimps or snails much good.

It can also kill plants even in a small overdose.

 

[Retired Viking]

I use Flourish comp and agree with @essjay and avoid Flourish excel. I was trying to deal with black beard algae on some anubias nana I bought and did read that Flourish Excel is suppose to be good at getting rid of BBA. I chose hydrogen peroxide instead.

 

[StevenF]

One of the leaves is yellows with most of the green in the veins of the leaf. That is a common symptom of iron deficiency. Flourish comprehensive is a popular fertilizer but it has very low levels of many nutrients and iron is one of the few abundant nutrients in it. You might want to try a different fertilizer aquarium coop easy green or Nilocg.com thrive two I would consider. I don't recommend root tabs because there is no way to know when they run out of nutrients and only the plants close to a tab will benefit. Liquid fertilizerspreads out thoughout the tank avoiding the problems with root tabs.

There are three types of iron commonly used in fertilizers:

• Iron EDTA: works best at a PH of 6.5 or less. It will start to break down at ph levels higher than 6.5.
• Iron DTPA works best at a PH of 7 but is still works well at a PH of 7.5 . at higher PH i breaks down like EDTA leaving inert iron.
• Iron Gluconate: This is the iron used Seachem flourish iron and flourish comprehensive. It is not affected by water PH. But bacterial consumption of the gluconate means it should be dosed several times a week.

Nilocg.com .comsells all 3in dry powder form. You can use this fertilizer calculator and a scale to determine how much to dose in your tank In my aquarium I use FE DTPA at a dose of 0.1ppm once a week. Since I started making my own fertilizer I have never run out of iron at this dose. I would avoid dosing more than 0.5ppm once a week with a once per week water change.

 

[gksch]

Thank you for your your answer. I got the iron supplement from Seachem and started to apply it already. I noticed that the problem with the anubias slowed down. I am going to continue the applications.