# General Topics > Plants, Plant Care & Plant Identification >  What's up with my Dracaena??

## irThumper

[EDIT: Dieffenbachia! Sorry for mix up!] Ok, I've never kept these before so don't know if this is normal, or if it means I'm over or under watering, or what. Can anyone fill me in? The leaves are usually green and white, but the last few days I've noticed a lot of yellowing... normal die off or...???

Will get some pics up in a bit.

Normal green and white...



Turning yellow and losing green color...



This plant is in a 4" plastic pot with drain holes. I just misted before I took the pics as the moss looked dry. I give them an actual watering once a week, but I've been misting a lot more lately to keep the humidity up for the PTF in residence. (10 gal tank, so know this plant is too small for it already and will need to be potted up and moved to bigger digs).

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## Ryan

That's a Dieffenbachia, They sometimes have leaves die off if there isn't enough 
sunlight. Do you see roots on the bottom of the pot? what's the soil type?

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## irThumper

> That's a Dieffenbachia, They sometimes have leaves die off if there isn't enough 
> sunlight. Do you see roots on the bottom of the pot? what's the soil type?


OOPS! Mixed up my "D" plants, lol (I have a dracaena in the tank too). Don't know the soil type as it is still in the pot it came in, will have to pull the pot up and check for roots. The pot is sitting in clay balls covered in frog moss. The light is a T8 listed as a "grow light" for plants... one of those under cabinet things that comes from Walmart. It's sitting on top of the screen lid.

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## irThumper

Have to run and pick someone up from work, so will have to check when I get back. Sorry about the plant name mix up, the dracaena is actually the one she likes to hide out in so the name I had on the brain  :Wink:

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## bill

First thing you want to do is remove the moss, it is probably retaining too much moisture. Second is trim those yellow leaves off. They are old growth, so let's get rid of them. Then we can start from scratch. My guess though, is over watering. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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## irThumper

I wondered if that was it. The moss is on top of the soil to try and keep the frog out of it, since it was a plant from Walmart and who knows what is in the mix (this was before I got here and found out all the lovely info available). I washed the plant leaves and flushed it well with filtered spring water before I put it in the tank. I started misting fairly heavily when we had a severe drop in outdoor humidity here which carried over into indoors, the plant never looked like that prior to the additional misting. The actual dracaena looks fine and the lemon button ferns too (it had some brown tips when I got it), the dieffenbachia is the only one with discoloration. It's been in the tank since early July, do you think it is ok for the frog to be in contact with the soil now? She seems perfectly healthy and normal.

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## bill

If your ferns are doing well, but this one isn't, then it's probably a case of over watering. 

I would look at the soil it is in. If you see any perlite or vermiculite (the little white balls), just push some cocofiber over it. You definitely do not want the frog to get a piece of those on it and then swallow it during a shed. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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## irThumper

Also, I know that PT/CFs have been known to be immune carriers of Chytrid (don't know how to tell which do and which don't carry it) so is it a good idea NOT to use these plants in my future WTF's set up? Won't be getting them for the next 7-8 months but want to make sure anything I use is going to be safe.

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## bill

that is an interesting question that unfortunately, i don't have the answer for. but i will. give me the evening to do a little research and i'll have an answer for you tomorrow  :Smile:

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## irThumper

> that is an interesting question that unfortunately, i don't have the answer for. but i will. give me the evening to do a little research and i'll have an answer for you tomorrow


Thanks much, I appreciate it  :Smile:  

Good to know about the perlite and vermiculite too...! I actually do have that in the soil mix of the trailing African violets the other 3 frogs are in, and they frequently do dig into the soil and bury themselves in it  :EEK!:   In fact just today one of the girls soaked in the water dish after coming out of the soil, she did have what looked like a tiny bit of perlite on her, but cleaned herself off all over with her back and front toes and it fell off.  :Frog Surprise:  I notice them do that quite often after coming out of the soil, something I don't recall seeing our PTFs doing when we had them when I was a kid, but then again ours were never in a live planted tank either.

I'm wanting to repot all future plants to be used in a viv in organic soil without any chemical ferts, but what should I use for drainage in the soil to replaced the perlite and vermiculite, or should I keep that in the lower depths of the pots? i don't know how far down WTF's can bury themselves but the PTFs don't go in that far really, just push their bellies down in and hunker under the plant stems/leaves. Then again WTF's are a lot bigger than these little guys.

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## Ryan

> Also, I know that PT/CFs have been known to be immune carriers of Chytrid (don't know how to tell which do and which don't carry it) so is it a good idea NOT to use these plants in my future WTF's set up? Won't be getting them for the next 7-8 months but want to make sure anything I use is going to be safe.


Ive heard about this also. I treat my frogs as if they have the chytrid fungus so i use different feeding tongs 
and disinfect anything that im going to reuse for another tank that was originally with the chorus frogs. Just
be cautious and you should be fine!

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## bill

It seems as though the newest treatment for plants with a possibility of keeping the chytrid fungus is a treatment with lamisil. Yes, the foot spray. I remember talking to Lynn and heather  about it. I'll try and get the info from them on it.  :Smile: 

As far potting up your plants, best bet is to rinse off the soil and pot them on in ABG. That way they are in a well draining media and start acclimating what you should be using in the Viv anyway.  :Smile: 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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## bill

Ok, general consensus after discussing this with people much smarter than I, is as follows:

If you have not had the chorus frogs tested, do so. Do not use the plants in that tank for anything else. If you get a positive result for chytrid, dispose of the plants properly. 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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