# Plant identification



## Johnson1905 (Aug 15, 2015)

Picked up these plants at petco today. Can someone please identify them for me? And if possible give me upkeep requirements


----------



## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Far right: Anubias, most likely anubias nana. Its a rhizome based plant, rhizome is the horizontal thick part that both stems and roots grow from
photos of rhizome:








*DO NOT BURY RHIZOME IN THE SUBSTRATE! *This will kill the plant. its best to bury roots and keep rhizome fully exposed in the water column, or if roots are too short tie the anubias to rock/wood/decor, or tie to a lead free plant weight and bury the weight. When tieing anubias rhizome think of it like your arm, do *not *tie too tightly and constrict it. Aside from above mentioned restrictions anuaibas is a low light low demand plant. It grows slowly and can get algae on it in high light or tanks with unbalanced nutrients, but its leaves are thick and hardy making it easy enough to clean by removing plant and wiping (gently) leaves off with a wet towel or paper towel. Its an excellent starter plant for people new to planted tanks.

The 2 sets of stem plants are both emersed grown (grown out of water) and have not grown new leaves for underwater living yet. Emersed grown leaves often look different from submersed (immersed) growth of stem plants. Expect melting/falling leaves. Also spread out the sties, keeping them bunched at the base means all the leaves will not grow on the lower part of the plants as they get very little light.
I think the middle stem bunch is moneywort? Medium light plant, spread out stems.









The left bunch with red is not likely to make it, its a high end of medium light to high light stem (I'd bought it too when I started out), Ammannia praetermissa (use to be called Nesaea 'red').
(page stretchers so linked)
emersed growth freshly put in a tank


immersed growth
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-...eXA/w1690-h953-no/IMG_20140520_192634_797.jpg


----------



## Johnson1905 (Aug 15, 2015)

Thank you so much for all of your help! I am so in love with planted tanks  this is my first attempt so I have a lot of questions lol. The Anubis was potted so I removed it from the carton and covered the little padding with gravel. The two stem plants were rubber banded lightly so I buried them gently. Do I need to dose them with anything or feed them? I wish the red one would make it so bad it is beautiful!


----------



## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

You can remove the padding from around the anubias so its rhizome can breath better. Cut the rubber band holding the stems together and spread them out a little. I only have one stem of Ammannia praetermissa alive, but its in an emersed setup, it melted to a nub underwater.
As for feeding there are a lot of plant food options, I'm a fan of Seachem's liquid ferts. Flourish is a good one to start with. If you try to make a higher light tank to keep the ammannia alive you may consider also getting Excel by Seachem, its a co2 substitute and can help keep hair algae (often occurs in high light tanks) at bay. Some plants can not tolerate the chemical make up of Excel though: vals, marimo, subwasertang can all die from Excel. Some people successfully do tiny doses in tanks with these plants but I witnessed an overnight melt of vals (whole tank full) when i put in 0.1ml of excel in a 12g tank so I won't risk it again.


----------



## Johnson1905 (Aug 15, 2015)

I spread the stems like you recommended and it looks a lot fuller. Hopefully the leaves will grow on the bottom of the stems. The lighting isn't too strong but I will be ordering the fertilizer you recommended


----------



## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

make sure to pull out that anubias plant out of the gravel. It will rot if it is buried.


----------



## wildmountainthyme (Jul 13, 2015)

You have better luck than me! I went to Petco when I was first starting out and they had a big tank full of underwater plants.. or so it seemed.

Brought a bunch home, only to find I had exactly 0 aquatic plants, and they would eventually all rot. (mondo grass, dracaena - not regular bamboo but a relative, etc). 


I did much more research this time and am going to pick up some anubias and hornwort soon.


----------



## Johnson1905 (Aug 15, 2015)

Tree, I made sure the plant wasn't covered, but I am noticing some browning and clear parts on one leaf. It couldn't be too much light right? It's the tallest leaf. 

Wildmountian.. That stinks, I wish the people who worked in the fish/plant section had more knowledge about their product.


----------



## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Clear photo of the brown area please? May be diatoms (aka brown algae) of leaf breaking down (though usually area turns yellow then brown then deteriorates).

Its not the employees (well its them too but mainly) its the company, they don't care as all plant sales are final and no returns for them dieing like for fish.

Both lucky bamboo (dracaena braunii) and true bamboo (Bambuseae) are not true aquatics, their leaves cannot be kept underwater.


----------



## AquaPlayz (Aug 14, 2015)

I would take the anubias and just tie to pink cave, the rhizome is covered in the last pic, it needs to be completed out of the substrate not just showing


----------



## Johnson1905 (Aug 15, 2015)

The leaf was like that when I bought it about 3 weeks ago. It has just spread a little.


----------



## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

That kinda looks like something munched on it..was it like that when you got it? Do you have an apple snail in the tank? Might as well cut that leaf off at the base by the rhizome, it can't heal the damage.


----------



## Johnson1905 (Aug 15, 2015)

It was like that when my mother in law bought it. There is nothing in the tank but my betta. I went ahead and clipped it at the base  thanks for your help


----------



## Johnson1905 (Aug 15, 2015)

This is the second leaf I've lost  please help me! I don't want to lose the whole plant


----------



## AquaPlayz (Aug 14, 2015)

Tie it to a rock or something, it's because it's in the substrate.


----------

