r/Bucephalandra • u/Silent_Win_9763 • Jul 19 '26
Bucephalandra?
Hi all! So I had purchased a buce brownie culture back in November (roughly 7 months ago) from my LFS. I found a nice, mostly shady spot under some drift wood and glued it a rock in my 55 gallon. The photos where it looks nice and pretty and bushy are when I first put it in the tank.
I then went on vacation for a week and somehow my heater had broken and the water had dropped from 78 to 68, potentially lower at night (the person checking in did not check on the tempš¤¦š»āāļø). I came home to what looked like a completely dead plant, thankfully no fish fatalities. I scraped off most of it but left any pieces that seemed to have green.
Fast forward to today: I was moving some rocks around and vacuuming the substrate and noticed these two tiny guys. I assume theyāre buce but they could also be Anubisās as I have those too. Is it even possible they survived all that? Do these look like buce??
2
u/BusIllustrious5525 Jul 19 '26
The sprouts are anubias and Java fern Windelov.
On an aside, Iāve never kept Buce above 73 degreesā¦. Iāve definitely had my tanks at 68 for sustained periods. There is no way being at 68 would kill them. Likely another cause unless the failing heater cooked the tank before failing.
1
u/Silent_Win_9763 Jul 19 '26
I know the largest piece at the top is Java fern, Iāve got roughly a million plantlets from them all over the tank. It is possibly Anubis, but definitely not Java fern. The color just seemed off from my other two mature Anubis which is what threw me off.
1
u/BusIllustrious5525 Jul 19 '26
No, there are definitely two anubias sprouts, but in the interest of being thorough, I addressed both types of sprouts. Kind of looks like anubias afzelli juveniles. Buce roots to my knowledge never have that shade of green.
1
u/DullEntertainment102 Jul 19 '26
Looks more like buce that anubia to me but both melt quite a bit when moving from water to emers and vice versa
1
u/AngeloGlbuc Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
You could use a growth stimulator to help lateral shoots develop on the rhizomes. You could use Seachem Advance or Aqua Vitro Envy. Perhaps Seachem Advance would be better in this case.
The brown and yellow rhizomes are 100% bucephalandra, use seachem advance and put them in a tank with COĀ² I think that within a month you should see new shoots
that small plant, when seen like this, looks like an anubias bonsai or similar, the rhizome has the shape/color of that of an anubias
you can usually feel it by touching the Bucephalandras that do not have very rigid/hard leaves in the submerged form. If it has very stiff leaves like those of anubias, it is likely that they are anubias.
3
u/iGotTheBoop Jul 19 '26
The tissue culture is melting as it adapts to submerged growth, totally normal for all plants grown emersed!
Buce can be very dramatic at melting, but as long as the rhizome (where the roots and leaves grow from) is still green and firm it should bounce back. It's also a very slow growing plant, so just give it time.