OMG Yes! Anubias Nana is blooming!

[RandomGemini]

I've had this anubias nana for about ten years. It has moved aquariums several times and has been in my aquariums since I set up my very first freshwater planted tank in 2003. I'd heard they bloomed, but was told that it never happened in an aquarium setting, because these plants are actually bog plants that get borrowed for the aquarium hobby.

I purchased a second anubias nana when I set up this ten gallon incarnation of my freshwater planted aquarium about two years ago. I moved both plants near each other to form a sort of larger looking bush. Since then, the older plant has seemed to thrive, putting up about a new leaf a month. Both plants have been growing steadily for me.

Recently, however, I neglected to do water changes on my aquarium for a few months. I've started doing water changes again... and suddenly, my anubias nana rewards me with this:



That's gotta be a bloom spike! I've never seen any growth like this on the plant in ten years. Whatever I'm doing, I must be doing it right, at long last!

[Tindomul]

Very nice!! Aroids were my first botanical love. I used to grow this one as an emergent rather than submerged. It would flower for me rather regularly.
Nice shrimp by the way!
I was never able to keep a planted aquarium, the best I could do was grow plants emergently.

[My Green Pets]

Wow, update us with a pic of the opened flower!

[SlipperGirl]

Great job!

[RandomGemini]

I think you have to have the right plants for your setup is all. My aquarium is mid to low light. It's small, I don't do a lot of maintenance on it, so I went to my local fish store and I talked to the woman that runs it about what I have in my aquarium and how I maintain it, and she helped me pick some great plants for it.

I have two other anubias, a congensis and an afzelli. So far, they are growing pretty well for me.

My really serious growers though, are my african water fern, my asian java fern and java moss. African water fern can be a bit tricky if it's not properly placed. It won't grow if it doesn't have flow directly on it, but other than that, it's been pretty easy.

Thank you! I love my shrimp. This one is a female cherry shrimp. They're probably the most fun part of my planted aquarium. I started with four of them and now I have probably over a hundred. I actually need to pick up a few more from the store, to improve their genetic diversity a bit.

Here's a pic of the whole thing. I didn't have any recent ones so I had to take a new one. I prefer to photograph my aquariums after dark, so there are fewer reflections off the glass.

[SlipperGirl]

I love your aquarium

[RandomGemini]

Thanks! I went and looked back and pics of it from a year ago, and I'm surprised by how much all of the plants have grown in the last year. It's quite a lot!

[TOMMYMIAMI]

This is awesome, I love the aquarium very much!!!

[Tindomul]

Very nice! I guess I just wanted to grow plants that couldn't make it in my setups. Do you do anything special, add CO2 or something? Any fish?

---------- Post added at 02:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------

Oh, I see the fish, do you have a list of the fish you have?

[RandomGemini]

I have 9 fish. I'm convinced that this is why my tank has grown so well. I originally set this tank up as plants only, but the LFS convinced me to add fish to provide a sort of natural fertilizer for the plants. It was the right thing to do. After I added fish to the setup, my plant growth took off. I have 6 Ember Tetras and 3 Cardinal Tetras. I've tried to add just one more fish several times and had no luck. I lose the tenth addition every time. I think my aquarium likes the bioload right at 9 fish, so after I lost my sparkling gourami this summer, I decided to call it good at 9 and just leave well enough alone.

No CO2 injectors here, no UV sterilization. I don't have space for the additional equipment because this aquarium is on my kitchen counter.

I do add Seachem Flourish Excel about once a week, at half the recommended dose and I bury a couple of seachem flourish fertilizer tabs in the substrate once a year.

I think the other thing I do that keeps the "waste" low in my aquarium, is feed a gel based fish food. I used to feed flake, but the LFS store owner turned me on to feeding Repashy. It's what's she feeds her freshwater community tank and my tetras and my shrimp love it. I think this is why I have zero problems with nitrates in my aquarium. The water chemistry is very stable.