Got Myself 3 New Plants As A Challenge

In line of my next aquarium upgrade to a larger 35-40 gallon tank. I just acquired new plants as candidates to be placed inside it.

eustralis stellata
rotala macranda
rotala wallichii

i know these are very dificult plants to take care of.... i hope they do well in my aquarium ! if any of you guys have any experience with these plants post em here to help me out !

*ps right now there are in their emmersed form.... (great a bigger challenge for me )

Remind us what lighting you have again?

I tried E. Stellata under 130w in my 55 gallon and it growth was real slow and not particularly healthy looking, so I threw it out...

Pseud i was just wondering where the hell you've been. I havent seen you here in a while m8. good seeing you here again.

As for Kens lighting, check this out

Check this out

Oh, thanks RS. I've been around, but not posting much. (been kinda busy with school, work and music. anyway)

i miss going to school

anyway right now they are in a 13 gallon with 95 watts of lighting

in the new tank they will be housed in a 35 gallon tank which is a bit lower then usual with 4X36 watts of lighting.... which i am still having trouble creating

just got em, im a bit doubtful if 2 out of the 3 plants are the correct sp. They are in their emmersed form so its a bit hard to google em.. can you guys help me out ?

Plant1



Plant2



Plant3

kenneth_kpe said:

Plant3

Click to expand...

I have the third plant. The site where I purchased it called it Rotala macranda. Here is a picture of mine.



The second pictured plant also looks like a type of rotala, which I have as well, but mine has a bit more red in it. The site called it Rotala roundifolia. Both are growing roots in my aquarium and not rotting yet, but I've only had them a few days. So only time will tell. The website's version of Rotala wallichii, had much finer, thread-like leaves and more red in the plant, but again, you mentioned that your plants were emersed.

Sorry I couldn't help much, but your plants look great all the same and your pictures are excellent.

yup its good to know that the 3rd plant is similar to your macranda i hope it grows, i keep on wondering what the 1st plant is though....

The first one is either some form of Pogostemon stellata (formely known as Eusteralis stellata) or it could also be a variation of Limnophila aromatica, at the moment it looks more like a form of Limnophila aromatica to me anyway, i have a very similar plant in my own tank and my understanding is that it is L.aromatica but a sub species of which there are many, the ones we normally see in Amano tanks and widespread on the web are the ones propagated by Tropica, but there are many subspecies which are not as spectacular they will all colour up given the right conditions but are not the same plants that are desireable in the hobby.

I would post a picture if i had a camera, i also have P.stellata in my tank and it has many more leaves at each node than the one shown in your pictures, each node has about 10 leaves whereas my sub veriety of L.aromatica has 4 leaves at each node. The leaves on both my plants are also narrower but of the same structure as seem in your pics, the leaves on my P.stellata are very narrow.

Give it a couple of weeks for new growth to show and then you will know.

thanks zig ! actually the first one was sold to me as Pogostemon stellata (formely known as Eusteralis stellata), i just could not compare it to any pictures on the net because i could not find an emmersed form when i did a google, i could not double check with my plant friends here locally too because its a bit rare over here.

Any give i kinda doubted it was that plant because the emmersed and immersed form look super differet, the platns are too wide emmersed compared to its immersed counertpart.

thanks its just 3 days into teh tank, il give it a week and study the immersed growth.

I have eustralis stellata in both my tanks, mine seem to be more red in colour than the one you show.
I have to cut mine down every month or so as i find them fast growing even in a plain sand substrate.
Never had any luck with the rotala wallichii, all mine did was shed leaves then die

my wallichii did that before... but that was a year and a half ago! im hoping that this time im much more knowledgable and might be able to take care of it !!

did yo uget your e. stellata in emmersed form ? was it already red that time ?

here are newer photos of the plants with their submerged growth.

Can you identify them now ?