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My new Anacharis

2K views 19 replies 7 participants last post by  FishyFishy89 
#1 ·
I got Spike a new Anacharis and a bottle of Flourish to go with it. I had it planted. But I decided to float it instead because it has little to no roots. I do expect it to wilt while it adjusts to my water. I have a few questions:
The fert
It is a liquid fert. The dosage says 5ml per 60 gallons. I gave my 5.5 gallon 1 DROP. That should be plenty correct?
The bottle also says to dose once to twice a week. With just 1 plant do I still do once a week dosing?
During the time the plant is adjusting. Should I do water changes? Remove the dying pieces? Or both? How often?
Spikes still recovering from ammonia poisioning. The ammonia shouldn't harm the plant correct?

TYVM for answering my questions :)
 
#2 ·
You could actually use almost 0.5ml (~10 drops) of Flourish for a 5 gal. Since you just have the one plant, it won't be competing for nutrients except with algae, so I'd probably halve the dose and give about 5 drops once a week...or you could do one drop a day. Anacharis is a tough plant, you won't need to baby it too much. It should be fine with your normal water changes and the ammonia left in the tank.
 
#3 ·
Ive read somewhere that anacharis has been known to melt when using flourish, I'm not sure about other ferts, but I suggest you start small. I also got mine from petco, it never melted, or died back despite me chaopping them all in half to fit my smaller tank.
 
#4 ·
Anacharis is sensitive to high doses of "Flourish Excel," which is used as a CO2 supplement. The regular Flourish is just a comprehensive liquid fertilizer and is fine for anacharis.

I got my anacharis from PetSmart. I buried most of it and the majority started putting off new shoots within a week. I did have trouble keeping it from floating away, but it puts out roots quickly and seems to be stuck in pretty well now. I did have a few strands that didn't do anything, but it all was looking pretty rough to begin with.
 
#6 ·
Trimming the plant. Would regular kitchen scissors work just fine? I've heard of certain plants dying if you cut them with regular scissors.

Lighting. Is 12 hours too much?
 
#7 ·
I do store mine in the fridge, I'm not sure what'd happen if you didn't...maybe algae would grow in the bottle or it'd degrade faster? I have enough room in there, so seemed better to be safe than sorry.

To be honest I've always trimmed all my plants with normal kitchen scissors...I haven't heard of normal scissors hurting plants, but none of mine have been negatively affected so far...

Oh, just so you'll know what to expect...the main stem of the anacharis that I got from the store didn't do anymore growing. All the new growth came from new stalks that sprouted from the side or tip of the old ones. Mine was in pretty bad shape to begin with though, dunno if that had an effect on the growth.
 
#8 ·
Mine seems to look pretty unhappy as well. There are some nice green shots from the unhappy pieces tho.

While doing Spike's water change I found out he thought the Anacharis was nummy. He pretty much ate the leaves off of one of the good stalks :'(
I hope he doesn't continue to eat them. Maybe I'll start feeding him twice a day and see if that curbs his need to eat the plant.
 
#9 ·
Anacharis is a low light, fast growing plant, excess light can potentially harm/burn the plant. When I had 2 15watt bulbs in my 10 gallon, my anacharis started to turn brown and grew much slower; once I got 10 watt bulbs they started growing like normal.

Most bad shape plants will grow new "seedlings" because they want to continue to live. Once your new chutes get long enough to stick in your substrate you can remove them from your old plant and get rid of your old plant.

As for fertilizer, you really don't need it for anacharis, it will grow strong and fast without it. And using that fertilizer can also potentially help algae grow.

I recommend a 10 watt 6500k bulb for about 10 hours and that should be enough for your anacharis. Save your fertilizers until you get more and different plants.
 
#11 ·
This is my bulb:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11248156

So as far as the lighting. Putting it where it would receive low to medium light is best? Or with the light I had would it remain fine where it is? It is basically right under the light.
How do you remove the chuts? Just cut them off? I think I saw 1 chut still attached with it's own roots....maybe I was seeing things.
 
#12 ·
guys it's "shoots" lolol chute is like a large pipe/vent thingy :p
They will drop roots from time to time. exactly why, or when I have no idea. My anacharis, when I had it in the 1 gallon grew like crazy and I had to cut back so much it wasnt funny :S
To remove a shoot you simply snip it off, or if you want you can snip some of the old stalk with it. :) it usually grows out the top of the old one anyway.
 
#13 ·
It's been a long day and I felt like spelling it chutes :p.

I tear my shoots off, it keep the plant healthier. If you use scissors, you will be cutting through the cellular structure and killing whatever cells that have been cut.

The best way to understand this is by imagining bubble wrap. If you cut bubble wrap you will be cutting through the bubbles and those bubbles will no longer be able to function, but if you tear bubble wrap,the tear will rip along side the bubbles and they will remain in tact and will still be usable.

SO by tearing your plants vs cutting them you will be inviting new growth while maintaining life and health.

Re-guarding the light, your bulb is perfect. You can also find 10w 6500k bulbs at walmart or home improvement store for $5 for 2. Just to save you some money.

Keep your anacharis wherever you want it since that bulb has good distribution over the tank and whatever light it receives will be taken in.
 
#14 ·
awesome
so even if the plant is floating directly under the light it shouldn't harm it?
TY for the recommendation to look into the bulbs at my local wally world or home improvement store.

Ty for the helpful info on tearing vs cutting as well. Looks like I'll be tearing them
 
#15 ·
Just wanted to update on Spike's new plant.
It is doing quite well. The unhappy/tan colored pieces have started to green up nicely. There seems to be only 1 piece that isn't doing that great. It is only a small little piece. But it will be missed if it decides to give up.
 
#16 ·
Just wanted to show the progression of my Anacharis and I have a coupla questions:
Some pieces seem to have "hair" on them. This isn't a fungus is it?
Also, what seems to be tan-ish or dead. My bulb isn't burning the plant? I was thinking if it was, then the rest of the plant would be showing affects as well.
The shoots look great. Nice and green, lush. Spike isn't eating them anymore. Not sure what prompted him to eat a part of the plant before:roll:
i believe some roots are going as well. Tho not the way I expected. I thought they'd curl/float like the plant. but they are just growing straight down. I'm alright with that. Gives Spike something else to play with :) He REALLY loves this plant.
pictures now!



The next 2 photos I was trying my best to show the "hair". You can see it some in the above 2. But it is quite blurry....and includes a photo bomber xD


The plant as a whole....looks very lovely :)
 
#17 ·
Did you figure our what the "hairs" were? I couldn't see them in the pictures, though I probably was t looking the right way..
 
#19 ·
Also, some insects will lay eggs in the stems of these plants. If your fish see anything like that when they're patrolling the tank, they'll start to WORK on that section of plant to get at the critters.

If you start seeing little chunks of chewed up plant stems, that's what's going on.

I'm pretty sure my fish aren't chewing on the stalks for fun like you would with stalks of sugar cane.

But I see little chewed up stems on the bottom of the tank all the time. The fish are responsible for the bits.
 
#20 ·
I think it was hair algae. The stalks it was on had died. Soon there was only a few stalks living and I've bought 2 more bunches of anacharis and Wisteria. I think Spike likes hte Wisteria best.
 
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