Plants Doing Things...

Plants do everything that fish and other animals do...they just do it at a more leisurely pace.
I thought it might be worth while showing some images of plants doing things.*
First off, we often talk about the Java Fern making 'baby' ferns.
Here we go...**



Leave the babe in place and this'll happen;


NOTE the rootlets, under the 'mother' leaf;






*Cue references to Triffids, etc..
**Behave.

Now for something different...
A Hygrophila guianensis, after I trimmed it just above the leaf node.
Not only did it sprout new leaves at the cut, after just a week, it sent out roots and has taken a liking to the Maromo 'Moss' ball.
(This isn't actually a moss, but another form of algae, that naturally forms itself into spheres, by rolling with the current).
The moss balls are frequently browsed by both fish and shrimp and attract all manner of nutrients, as the Hygrophila has discovered.

Photobombed...


Try again;

Always nice to see plants thriving and giving out shoots or new ‘baby’ plants.

Reminds me I had a tiny anubias when I first started, only had maybe 4 leafs on it, cue about 4-5 years laters it took over the entire price of driftwood it was rooted on.

Almost the same for Java moss ball, tiny little golf ball sized at first, 4-5 years later became the size of a mini football!

Of course vallisernias grow bonkers when they are established, chucked out bunches of those every week.

Don’t realise it at the time, it’s only when you see old photos of the tank that’s when you go ‘oh yeah, look at that!!’

Ch4rlie said:

Always nice to see plants thriving and giving out shoots or new ‘baby’ plants.

Reminds me I had a tiny anubias when I first started, only had maybe 4 leafs on it, cue about 4-5 years laters it took over the entire price of driftwood it was rooted on.

Almost the same for Java moss ball, tiny little golf ball sized at first, 4-5 years later became the size of a mini football!

Of course vallisernias grow bonkers when they are established, chucked out bunches of those every week.

Don’t realise it at the time, it’s only when you see old photos of the tank that’s when you go ‘oh yeah, look at that!!’

Click to expand...

'Java' Moss ball?

These are great. I know I have talked about this before but I would suggest anyone with planted tanks takes lots of photos so you can compare them over time. When you look at your tanks every day you don't notice all these little changes that are happening.

Having lots of reference photos and even putting them into timelapses really shows you what is going on.

With the crypts I planted up yesterday I had quite a few tiny little plantlets that I have "jammed" into bits on my wood hardscape. Not sure if they will come to much but I'm going to be taking photos along the way so if they do survive and grow it will make an interesting timelapse.

Edit: Hope you don't mind me posting this here. I know you have seen it but other may not have and it fits the theme of the thread.

Most people don't realise quite how quickly plants can grow. Below is two photos from my current new tank taken 4 days apart. This is a new tank that isn't fully established yet and the plants were not the best quality when I bought them. Eventually the plant growth will likely be even faster than this.

xxBarneyxx said:

These are great. I know I have talked about this before but I would suggest anyone with planted tanks takes lots of photos so you can compare them over time. When you look at your tanks every day you don't notice all these little changes that are happening.

Having lots of reference photos and even putting them into timelapses really shows you what is going on.

With the crypts I planted up yesterday I had quite a few tiny little plantlets that I have "jammed" into bits on my wood hardscape. Not sure if they will come to much but I'm going to be taking photos along the way so if they do survive and grow it will make an interesting timelapse.

Click to expand...

Don't forget...you can glue them into place with superglue gel.

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

Don't forget...you can glue them into place with superglue gel.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I considered that but was curious to see how/if they would self attach. There is not a ton of flow in that area and no fish yet so shouldn't be disturbed too much. If they are still alive and haven't self attached by the time I get some fish though I will probably glue them.

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

'Java' Moss ball?

Click to expand...

Hah, had java on the brain there, for some reason while was typing quickly I simply wrote java moss ball!. Oops!

Yeah, I meant it to say marimo moss ball.

Got a feeling you knew what I meant anyway!!

Ch4rlie said:

Hah, had java on the brain there, for some reason while was typing quickly I simply wrote java moss ball!. Oops!

Yeah, I meant it to say marimo moss ball.

Got a feeling you knew what I meant anyway!!

Click to expand...

That said, I'm now thinking about wood with Marimo balls stuck to it...a bit of a Toy Poodle look, methinks.

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

That said, I'm now thinking about wood with Marimo balls stuck to it...a bit of a Toy Poodle look, methinks.

Click to expand...

You could try that, think I saw a thread long ago about someone sticking marimo moss spread out on top of root type wood to make it resemble a tree and was fairly successful but it fell apart after a while though.

The only thing, if anyone is considering keeping marimo moss balls is that these need to be turned over maybe twice a month to stop the bottom of the marimo ball from rotting due to lack of light.
I got into the habit of turning over the marimo ball every water change maintenance so that might be a nice little tip!

this thread needs an AO (18+) viewing audience, seriously, plant porn

Bruce Leyland-Jones said:

Plants do everything that fish and other animals do...they just do it at a more leisurely pace.
I thought it might be worth while showing some images of plants doing things.*
First off, we often talk about the Java Fern making 'baby' ferns.
Here we go...**

View attachment 145478

Leave the babe in place and this'll happen;
View attachment 145479

NOTE the rootlets, under the 'mother' leaf;

View attachment 145480




*Cue references to Triffids, etc..
**Behave.

Click to expand...

This thread is awesome please continue to update us on plants and the things they do - 10/10 ️ ️ ️ ️ ️

CPDtank96 said:

This thread is awesome please continue to update us on plants and the things they do - 10/10 ️ ️ ️ ️ ️

Click to expand...

Don't do it, he's under 18 and just a pervy teenager