Amazon Sword "Red Ozelot" the perfect low tech plant?

[Stan510]

Since the day I bought it it's been growing and getting larger. Some truth's so far- It does not get algae on the leaves. Some truths from me- Rainbow fish,Clown Loaches do not touch it.
It does devour Iron. Most all aquarium plants do.
The more light ( since its impervious to algae) the faster it grows.
Not expensive. A near perfect plant.

 

[Wills]

Looks great! I was reading a while ago that healthy swords can fight algae from growing on them so always a good sign

That rainbow is awesome too! Which species is it?

Wills

 

[Stan510]

It's a really well fed M.parva male. I have one pair. They are considerably smaller than male M. boesemani. I expected it to be a bright orange but its sorf of an off red with a dark blue patch. Might be a hybrid as he tries to mate with the female M. parva and two female M.boesemani.

 

[Stan510]

For anybody who likes the idea of a sunlit aquarium? Put the various sword plants on the list of "Will not fall to algae". Along with Bacopa and various Crypts...Pearlweed.
I now have three Echinodorus species. The Ozelot. Marble Queen and E. bleheri. Planted near each other and it looks good. I might add the Purple Sultan next.

 

[Stan510]

Update,bigger! More color!

 

[Stan510]

Even bigger...photo tomorrow. I've never had any Echinodorus do as well. Ever. What did I find when I moved a plant near it? A layer of iron from my use of the EDTA version. The sand looked like laterite.
So it might be true that the EDTA works best on aquarium plants with strong root systems then it does epiphytes, I can't say I see any big flush of Java ferns- I wish!

 

[Stan510]

One more of even larger size and I can see its going to get much larger and soon.

 

[Stan510]

I cant get over how this plant is like the 100' Atomic Sword Plant..even bigger by the day. I will hold off new photos until its double the size it is now. Plus- it looks perfect. Not a speck of algae-knock on wood- on it. The marbled pattern is so different,so distinct. Its getting direct filtered sun (2:30 pm- 6pm) and just absorbing it all happily.

 

[Stan510]

Keeps growing...

 

[Stan510]

Well,along the way the Marble Queen became active!..for the first time in the years I've had it,it's growing large leaves,with marbling. I'm sure it would be yellow and green under high lights and Co2.
The Sword plants seem to be ignored by scapers and that's a shame. They come in colors and leaf shapes in variety and I would tell you a centerpiece Sword Plant surrounded by colorful stem plants or just Anubias is worth the effort in low or high tech.

 

[Colin_T]

We had red ruffled sword plants years ago and they were stunning. They had deep claret red leaves with wavy edges and the leaves grew to over a foot long. They produced a number of flower stalks each year too. I just wish I could find them again. We had them growing in unheated ponds all year round (water temperatures between 2C in winter to 40C in summer).

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I gave up on swords because they kept outgrowing my tanks. I got a few compacta* swords and I have had one for 20 years now. Here is one Amazon swoard that got a tad too big for a 75 gal. tank.

* Amazon Compacta sword (Echinodorus bleheri 'compacta')

 

[Colin_T]

I gave up on swords because they kept outgrowing my tanks. I got a few compacta* swords and I have had one for 20 years now. Here is one Amazon sword that got a tad too big for a 75 gal. tank.

Sounds a bit like a Water Sprite plant I had. It was in a 4x2x2ft tank and literally covered the surface. It was a mothership plant that floated on the surface but the roots went into the gravel, and the leaves grew about 10 inches above the water. It had hundreds of smaller plants coming off it and when I got rid of it, we put it in a large foam esky used for shipping fish and it didn't fit.

We took it to a shop and the boss was expecting something about the size of a small dinner plate. When he saw it he made a few comments that can't be repeated here and then said "stick it in a pond".

He had a worker pick off all the baby plants and they had hundreds of small plants and this big chewed up mothership plant that was left in the pond

 

[Stan510]

Thats what I forgot to mention,the leaf sizes. The Ozelot is about 12" tall with 8" leaves,3" wide and the rest is 4" of stem. So,its leafy and more colorful with growth. They love the iron.

 

[Stan510]

Great sword plant. Mine has just been awakened by the iron too- the all green bleheri has sent up a few leaves living up to the sword name. You hardly see it in the old photos when right now its sticking up past the Ozelot loud and clear.
Using the cheap Home Depot iron ( with zinc and yucca extract!) in the gallon containers.