I posted earlier about my Amazon Swords were developing holes in its leaves.
Yes i do have a low lighted tank (barely under the 1watt/gallon rule) which
was suggested as the problem along with the chance that my pleco is eating
it.

But now i've noticed my Anubias (barteri var. caladiifolia "1705") seems to
have the similar problem in its NEW leaf. The old leaves are still find but
the new leaf that has grown seems lighter in colour with a hole that is
developing. My java ferns in my tank are doing very well though (new nodes
keep appearing at the ends of the leaves for propogation). Any ideas?? Oh
and just to note, the Anubias is planted on a lavarock, held down by
fishwire.

TIA!

Darwin

Or excess nitrate?

LeighMo wrote in message
...
But now i've noticed my Anubias (barteri var. caladiifolia "1705") seems
to
have the similar problem in its NEW leaf. The old leaves are still find
but
the new leaf that has grown seems lighter in colour with a hole that is
developing. My java ferns in my tank are doing very well though (new
nodes
keep appearing at the ends of the leaves for propogation). Any ideas??

It's natural for new leaves to be lighter in color.

As for the holes...my guess would be something is eating the leaves. It
could
be a deficiency, but given your low light levels, I think a salad-loving
fish
is more likely.

Though some people claim that fish don't eat anubias, IME, that's not
true. My
clown loaches routinely chewed holes in my anubias leaves, until I moved
them
to another tank.

If you can take a photo of the damaged leaf, that might help the
diagnosis.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

I would REALLY prefer not to have to admit that I've ever had a nitrate
problem that bad, but I promise you that you can burn holes in anubias.
Particularly the young leaves before they stiffen up. The swords and other
rosettes cook up really well. The fish don't necessarily die although they
may look like they want to. I seem to recollect some finless guppies, but
that was probably someone else's tank I'm thing of, yeah, that's right, it
was someone else...

kush

"You can't have everything - where would you put it?"

LeighMo wrote in message
...
Or excess nitrate?

Excess nitrate shouldn't make holes in anubias leaves.

I think it would kill the fish before it damaged plants.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

On Wed, 06 Nov 2002 05:25:17 GMT, "kush" wrote:

I would REALLY prefer not to have to admit that I've ever had a nitrate
problem that bad, but I promise you that you can burn holes in anubias.

Well, I've got (or at least had) nitrates around 40-50ppm, and the
anubias didn't show any sign of problems.

In any research I've done regarding nutrient deficiency and toxicity,
I've never found anything that suggested that high nitrates cause
necrosis. Ammonia toxicity may cause necrosis, but I'd expect it
would cause bigger more obvious problems with any fish in the tank.


Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua

hmm... i look at my fish for signs of nitrate problems.. is this a good way?
What would be syptoms? I assume some fin dissapearing (as mentioned in your
post). Any idea why my java ferns would be unaffected though?

I have a pic of the problem (part of this thread.) if that may help

Darwin


"kush" wrote in message
...
I would REALLY prefer not to have to admit that I've ever had a nitrate
problem that bad, but I promise you that you can burn holes in anubias.
Particularly the young leaves before they stiffen up. The swords and other
rosettes cook up really well. The fish don't necessarily die although they
may look like they want to. I seem to recollect some finless guppies, but
that was probably someone else's tank I'm thing of, yeah, that's right, it
was someone else...

kush

"You can't have everything - where would you put it?"

LeighMo wrote in message
...
Or excess nitrate?

Excess nitrate shouldn't make holes in anubias leaves.

I think it would kill the fish before it damaged plants.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

hmmm i just got a Hagen N03 kit and my nitrates look pretty high. It seems
to read 50 mg/l (ppm right?). One thing i noticed in the pamphlet is that
it says nitrate levels aren't toxic till they hit 110 mg/l. I always
thought nitrates were supposed to be WAY lower in order to be safe??

Well i started some massive water changes... took maybe 40% water out today.
The test still seems to say around 50 mg/l nitrates. (the colour scale is
pretty wide.. they only show levels for 5, 10 , 20, 50, 110 mg/l). I
thought it would've gone down after the intial water change but i guess i'll
have to keep doing partial changes everyday to see results??

Darwin


"Chuck Gadd" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 06 Nov 2002 05:25:17 GMT, "kush" wrote:

I would REALLY prefer not to have to admit that I've ever had a nitrate
problem that bad, but I promise you that you can burn holes in anubias.

Well, I've got (or at least had) nitrates around 40-50ppm, and the
anubias didn't show any sign of problems.

In any research I've done regarding nutrient deficiency and toxicity,
I've never found anything that suggested that high nitrates cause
necrosis. Ammonia toxicity may cause necrosis, but I'd expect it
would cause bigger more obvious problems with any fish in the tank.


Chuck Gadd
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua

"Darwin" writes:

hmmm i just got a Hagen N03 kit and my nitrates look pretty high.
It seems to read 50 mg/l (ppm right?). One thing i noticed in the
pamphlet is that it says nitrate levels aren't toxic till they hit
110 mg/l. I always thought nitrates were supposed to be WAY lower
in order to be safe??

Well i started some massive water changes... took maybe 40% water
out today. The test still seems to say around 50 mg/l nitrates.
(the colour scale is pretty wide.. they only show levels for 5, 10 ,
20, 50, 110 mg/l). I thought it would've gone down after the intial
water change but i guess i'll have to keep doing partial changes
everyday to see results??

It most likely went down, only your test is not accurate enough to register
the change. Say your initial reading of 50mg/l was in fact 70mg/l, which
is closer to 50 than 110 and would probably register as 50 on your kit.
Take 40% out of that, and you'll be at ~40ppm, which will probably still
read as 50 on the kit, being closer to 50 than to 20.
--
odoratusque est Dominus odorem suavitatis

LeighMo wrote:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...54465646caRjwS



Yes, I think it's the pl*co (or some similar fish). That doesn't look like any
deficiency I've ever seen. The leaves look not just chewed, but scraped -- the
kind of damage caused by fish with sucker mouths.

Leigh, are you certain? Look at the leaf: It has three holes, but several other
yellow areas. It looks to me like the yellow areas came first, and plecos don't
turn leaves yellow. They do eat dying leaves, however!

Darwin should take a look at Chuck Gadd's nutrient deficiency chart, given that
swords and anubias are both showing symptoms:

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm