Snow on the mountain – not melted yet

Anubias nana ‘Snow White’ – one month update

It’s been a little over five weeks since I planted anubias nana ‘snow white’ in the aquarium.  I wedged it into the various crevices on “the mountain” which is a biOrb Amazonas Root ornament sculpture.  There has been some discussion around the impossibility of actually being ‘real world’ successful with this plant, but nevertheless,  I decided to give it a go .

I can say that so far it hasn’t been an instant disaster.  Not dramatically successful either, but the plant is still in there mostly holding its own.  It definitely doesn’t look like it has had a significant number of the white leaves ‘melted off’ but neither would I say it’s shown much (any?) evidence of new growth.  There might be some green algae growth, but nothing too bad (I had expected much worse).  These specimens above had been dislodged from their place on the mountain and wound up wedged against the intake of the powerhead.  I took the opportunity to pull them out for these photos, but didn’t other do any cleaning or maintenance, and wedged them back into place in the tank.  The plantlets coming loose like this has happened before and is infrequent but not unusual.  I haven’t tied or glued them in place, just wedged them in, and I quite suspect that they are being periodically dislodged by zebra thorn snails, who seem to be the little miniature juggernauts of the aquarium.  In theory the anubias will grow roots that will attach themselves more firmly to their substrate, but I haven’t seen evidence of that happening either.

I think we’ll call it a draw for now – the snow is still in the game.