Tex Gal

For many people there comes a time when they finally throw up their hands and decide to remove the Green Spot Algae leaves from their anubias. What they are left with is a nice healthy green stem (rhizome) with a few leaves at the end. Their anubias will continue to grow out of the end and they will still have a long naked green stem. All is not lost. You can nick the now empty rhizome with your sizzors or a knife 1/3 of the way through the stem at intervals. At every nick the rhizome will begin to bud and send up a new branch. Here is a drawing. You do not have to cut a "V" shape out. Just a straight down cut will do it. Leave enough space between your cuts for the branch as it grows. In this px I just drew some cuts in. It was in no way an illustration of how close your cuts should be.



Here is a px of some new branches forming on some empty anubias rhizomes. If you could see the end of the rhizome you would see the normal growth continuing as well. In the background you can see another piece of stem about 1 inch long that also has 2 new branches forming. Even if you have NO leaves on a healthy piece of rhizome and do this it will branch out.

FYI: This is Anubias barterii nana gold. The stem is about 3/16" around. It doesn't matter how big the stem circumference is, just nick it 1/3 the way through.

Izzy

I'm pruning and getting ready to try the cutting technique for propagating new growth. Thanks for the pix and illustration.

wwh2694

Thank you for the great tip.

fishyjoe24

um I'm going to have to go do this to my anubias nana's. and see if i get faster growth.

wi_blue

That is some good info. Thank you.

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mocha2184

Does this only increase the number of leaves that grow, or does it also affect the rate of growth?

Tex Gal

It makes it send up branches as well as growing the leaves on the end. Since you are getting more plant mass, more leaves in more places, I'd have to say it's growing faster.

Glaucus

Great tip. However a slight warning for shrimp keepers. I read the following "[] ...never cut the rhizome of the Anubias plant and plant it back right away in your shrimp tank. Freshly cut rhizome/roots/stems/leaves from Anubias and Crypt. plants (especially Anubias) leak a toxic substance to your tank. If the shrimps forge on it, they tend to die within several days." Source: link.

I must say that my shrimps never showed any problems after crypts or anubias being pruned. But then again my tank has a strong current and plenty of volume so any toxins should quickly thin out. But i can imagine that in a small tank with crypts/anubias species, pruning or cutting rhizomes could become an issue for shrimps.

Tex Gal

That's interesting. We have put these in a small 3g tank with red cherries and they were alright. I wonder if there's any truth to this.

Coursair

I'm told this is a MYTH. Someone had shrimp die and blamed trimming the plants. In one version it's Anubias, in another it's Crypts. I've yet to hear proof if this or have anyone step forward and say it happened to them.