My new Anacharis

[FishyFishy89]

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 :)

[CytoEric]

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.

[aokashi]

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.

[CytoEric]

Originally Posted by aokashi

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.

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.

[FishyFishy89]

Originally Posted by CytoEric

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.

The Flourish i bought is the regular fert. Since you said that I went and double checked it xD
Has anyone stored theirs in the fridge? Mine says "refrigeration is recommended but not needed." I went ahead and put it in the fridge since it will mostly be used for my 5.5 gallon until the 75 gallon starts getting some plants.

ETA: also Spike's tank is a balmy 80-82F. Is this too hot for the plant?

[FishyFishy89]

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?

[CytoEric]

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.

[FishyFishy89]

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.

[ZergyMonster]

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.

[freemike]

Anacharis is "normally" considered a cold water plant. It has been known to do well in 80+ temps but some people say it struggles. So possibly the new green chutes you are getting will fair well while the original chutes die.