Deminishing leaf size help

[David95]

I purchased a Nepenthes Diabolica roughly 3 months ago and have placed it in my terrarium where it gets consistent temps, humidity, and light.
The day temps are between 70 to 73 and night temps are between 50 and 52. It gets 12 hours of light from a full spectrum led light and humidity is consistently 85%.
I have a few other neps in there that seem to be doing well and I have had them for about 7 months now but I haven't consistently gotten smaller leaves from them. I havent noticed any pests yet but I'm thinking it could be the roots? They are all in long fiver sphagnum and perlite mixture.
Any idea on what could cause this? I've thought it could be light or root issues. Here's a few pictures of the set up for now.

 

[Grey Moss]

The red blotching could be a sign on fungal attack. There are also pests too small to easily notice, like mites or thrips.

 

[Gregbey]

I have heard that this species like ultra-highland conditions and it can have deformed leaves if those conditions aren't met. Your temps are definitely highland maybe the day temps are a tad bit too high for it? I don't see that being the case but thats just what i have heard about it.

 

[Bio]

The temperatures should be fine for N. diabolica. Everything seems right, so I don't know what the issue might be. If you've only had it for three months, try letting it get settled in. I've noticed that Nepenthes can sometimes make smaller leaves when they undergo a change in conditions, specifically an increase in light. This might be what happened for you, as that red blotching looks like the coloration my N. hamata gets when it gets too much light. You could maybe try lowering the light levels for it? The new growth seems to have adjusted though. I'm really not sure what the issue could be otherwise. You could aim for higher humidity at night, but I doubt that would be the cause. I'd advise patience.

 

[David95]

The temperatures should be fine for N. diabolica. Everything seems right, so I don't know what the issue might be. If you've only had it for three months, try letting it get settled in. I've noticed that Nepenthes can sometimes make smaller leaves when they undergo a change in conditions, specifically an increase in light. This might be what happened for you, as that red blotching looks like the coloration my N. hamata gets when it gets too much light. You could maybe try lowering the light levels for it? The new growth seems to have adjusted though. I'm really not sure what the issue could be otherwise. You could aim for higher humidity at night, but I doubt that would be the cause. I'd advise patience.

So far I've adjusted the lights down seeing that my other nepenthes have red leaves after adjusting in the tank. My only other thought was that it could be lacking nutrients and started using Neptune's harvest fish and seaweed fertilizer seeing as it hasn't had any in a few months. I was hesitant to try root fertilizing so I kept it under 100 ppm and mixed with distilled water (same fertilizer I use for inside of pitchers).

After that I water it the next day to clear out any build up in the soil just in case. I will say it seemed to always drop its pitchers (just not growing them and turning black after a while) but some of the newer leaves still have little green pitchers ( basically microscopic haha) so I'm hoping that's a good sign.

I'll post an update if all goes well in a few months

 

[David95]

So heres my update, it still continued to put out smaller and smaller leaves in quick succession (like 1 new leaf ever 3 weeks) but luckily seems to have started to settle.

Im hoping it's a good sign that it has tiny pitchers forming and finally (even though VERY small) put out a bigger leaf than the last. I know its gonna be years (decade) before it gets to a respectable size but im happy that my little diabolica is doing ok