did you see the ribosome, it sould be white. If is then is entering dormancy, if the ribosome brown and soft then is dead.

I feed mine on occasion but your plants didn't starve. If you kept more than just the bottom of the plant in the pond they could have rotted but I think the real problem could have been minerals in the pond water. These plants must have rain, distilled or R/O water.

It's hard to say what actually went wrong. Maybe something in the water poisoned it. Ribosome (rhyzome)

They did NOT starve, My guess is that the rhyzomes were too deep in the water. Try again but keep the rhyzome(s) ABOVE the water level and make sure they are in FULL SUN. They will catch insects ON THEIR OWN. They do not need any help!

Thanks for all the info. Yesterday I trimmed all the dead leaves and to my surprise there are spots of new growth on booth plants. I definitely agree that they were planted to deeply in the pond. I checked the rhyzomes and found them to be white and in surprisingly "good"shape. Can I just treat them like I do my orchids and grow them under lights, or should I just put them in the cellar at around 50 degrees and let them sit out the winter there. Thank you.

I wonder the problem is that they went dormant, it is that time of the year the Sarrs go dormant. The new growth may be dorman buds. usually you plant the rhizome half way in the media.

Now when you checked if the rhizomes are white, which means they are alive. How did you check them? Hope you didn't break them in half... If you did, cracking a rhizome open when dormant is a very sure way to kill them.

I took them out of the pots and things did not look rotten.
By the way I had them planted to deeply but I think they'll survive. I'm going to leave them outside for now until the first frost then place them in a cellar window where the temps will be about 50 degrees.