Okay so yesterday I bought five anubias at my LFS (three different varieties). I made sure to ask the clerk if they needed any special lighting and he said no, the ones in the store grew fine and they only had stock lighting. He also said I shouldn't bother fertilizing either as it would cause algae problems.

I just want to make sure that what was said about caring for them is true.

ALSO, to plant... I want to plant them in gravel in clear votive holders... but what I wasnt sure about was if I was suppose to leave the spongy junk that they came in on the roots or not (when I got home I just kind of dumped them into a bin full of water (QT) in the little plastic planters they came in).


Any help would really be appreciated.

I haven't kept anubias myself, but from what I have read about them they are slow growing low light plants. They should be fine under stock lighting and with out fertilizer, but they will need to be removed from the sponge stuff that they come in. If you put them in votive jars with gravel like you mentioned make sure not to bury the rhizome, another thing that you could do is attach them to large rocks or driftwood by tying them on with cotton string, in a few months the string will dissolve leaving the plant sitll attached

I have Anubias nana in one of my tanks. It does not do well unless tied to a rock or driftwood. If you do not attach it, the roots will grow until they find something to attach themselves to, pushing the plant upwards. Make sure you have algae eaters in there because leaves get covered with algae.

Okay... thanks for the replys guys! One question... what exactly is rhizome? Isn't the root hairs? (its been a while since highschool ecology)

I am not very good at explaining things so here's a link that should help.

The rhyzome is a the thick green root. Sometimes there looks like there are many on the anubias but it is just divided. I've got mine attatched to some fake driftwood and it looks lovely and healthy.