Mangrove tree pod washed up

[duanes]

The trees grown in low light basicall yfaded away after a whiule..
And some insect (perhaps a box moth) is taking its toll on pthers, there are only maybe half dozen left,

This is one cocoon that appeared and had to be destoyed, I had less luck finding the oithers.

 

[duanes]

After purging the apparent Box Flies that were eating the leaves, a sort of gall disease has effected one of the mangrove trees (is there a relatioinship?).


Could be Rhizophora or Cyindrocarpon gall.
The Rhizophora have denuded forests in West Africa, and Cylindrocarpon effected mangroves from Florida, to the Atrato rive in Colombia.

I wondered if the thick Dieffenbachia in my sump were depriving the Mangrove of enough nutrients (nitrate) to fight off the disease,, so I removed the dieffenbachia from the sump about a month ago.

The Diefenbachia in the tank itself remain, yet the sump is now free of them.

And the Mangrove seems to be recovering a "bit", time will tell
.

 

[duanes]

Finally caught one of the criters that was decimatiming the mangroves.
Not easy to see, at first glance.


It was eliminated with extreme prejudice.

 

[duanes]

After the onslaught by caterpillars I thought some were goners, but even after looking dead for quite a while, leaves are returning.