How to divide Anubias Nana rhizome

aunt kymmie

Anyone know the best way for me to determine where to divide the rhizome on an anubia nana that is growing no side shoots, only one long rhizome? Just pick a spot midway and cut it? The rhizome is 5" long and I don't see any side shoots. Is that normal for this species of Anubia? Thanks!

Unrulyevil

divide it any way you like using scissors.

Byron

Agree with previous, any place is OK. I had one plant that was left alone in the back corner of my 90g for 8 years, and the main rhizome was well over 12 inches and it had 3-4 side shoots that were 6-7 inches. I just broke them all apart, pulled off some of the leaves to clean them up, and used them when I set up my 33g last September. Here's a photo of what that tank looked like afterwards; there were six individual "plants" in there. All of the pieces continued growing until I pulled this tank apart this Spring.

Attached Images

33g-Nov 17-08.jpg (111.8 KB, 30 views)

aunt kymmie

Thanks for the info, guys!
Byron, that 33g looks spectacular! Why, why, why did you ever break it down??
The book you recommended came last week (Peter Hiscock's Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants) and it's a great book. The chapter dealing with propagation on rhizomes says each division should have at least one good shoot. I don't see any shoots on my rhizome. I'm going to go ahead and cut it in half and we'll see what happens.
I just did a huge water change and used Hiscock's methods on dividing and pruning my plants. Already it looks much better and hopefully I'll see some great growth in the coming weeks. I changed out my fert program as we discussed last week and already there's been much improvement. I'm excited! I don't think I'll ever have to buy another plant again.
Thanks for all the help & great advice, much appreciated.

PS. What species of Anubias is that in the 33gl?

Byron

Hi Kym,

The plant is Anubias nana. It is as you know a slow-growing low light plant, and I threw out about 1/3 of it (the lower portion that was not the best looking) when I broke it apart for the 33g. The 33g setup was nice, I really like it, but the tank was not big enough for what I wanted and when I revamped the 70g in the Spring I moved the rock, wood, fish and most of the plants into the 70g. The Anubias nana in the left corner of the 70g in the posted photos is a further reduction of these bits and pieces. A couple of weeks ago I did more work on that corner of the 70g and now there are only two smallish bits of Anubias left; I took a photo yesterday which I'll upload in my "Aquariums" folder in a few moments; I think it's interesting to watch an aquarium evolve.

Cheers, Byron.