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How to divide Anubias Nana rhizome

9K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  Byron 
#1 ·
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! :)
 
#3 ·
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.
 

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#4 ·
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?
 
#5 ·
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.
 
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