Got My Water Lettuce In

[FishGuest5123]

I received 5 very healthy, large plants. @Byron, do the roots need to be trimmed and are 5 too many for one tank? Any secrets I need to know about? Do I need to feed these? My anacharis goes nuts without any food.

 

[Byron]

I would not trim the roots. And yes, you should be using a comprehensive liquid fertilizer, these (like all floaters) being fast growers need good nutrition.

Probably over the next several days/weeks these plants will send out daughter plants on thin "runners" of sorts; these daughter plants will be much smaller, more like we would think of as "dwarf water lettuce." The parent plants may slowly die off, hard to say as it depends upon the circumstances (light and nutrients). But once you see thee daughter plants, that won't matter.

 

[Retired Viking]

They kind of look like jellyfish, healthy looking roots, what do they look like on top?

 

[Byron]

A suggestion I forgot earlier...you asked about five in one tank, if you have another tank you could put one in that tank, or two. Only reason being that most floating plants can develop quite differently in one tank from what they do in another. Applies to most plants actually. I toss a few of these plants out at just about every water change; there will always be insufficient nutrients to support many of them, and those with a yellowing leaf I tend to toss. It thins out the surface, but next week it will be just as covered.

 

[FishGuest5123]

OK. Since they’re pretty large, I took out 2 and put one each in betta tanks. Not sure about the lighting in those tanks, may be too low but we’ll see. Here’s a pic from the top as requested.

 

[Retired Viking]

They are big, looks like the fish are already enjoying them

 

[FishGuest5123]

@Byron, I’m getting the daughter plants that you referred to. Do I just let them go or do I need to cut them lose at some point? Thanks for your help with this.

 

[Byron]

@Byron, I’m getting the daughter plants that you referred to. Do I just let them go or do I need to cut them lose at some point? Thanks for your help with this.

I tend to leave them. Like most floaters, this plant once established tends to spread rapidly, and I toss out some of it pretty much every weekly water change. Sometimes it is the older plants, sometimes not; any with yellowing leaves I tend to remove first. I suspect this plant grows so rapidly the yellowing leaves are simply due to the nutrients being used up.

Oncve the daughter plants have leaves and roots, I doubt they obtain any nutrients from the parent plant. Most aquatic plants are like this. So separating them should not cause any issues. I find the very delicate "runners" often break just from the water change activity.

 

[FishGuest5123]

I tend to leave them. Like most floaters, this plant once established tends to spread rapidly, and I toss out some of it pretty much every weekly water change. Sometimes it is the older plants, sometimes not; any with yellowing leaves I tend to remove first. I suspect this plant grows so rapidly the yellowing leaves are simply due to the nutrients being used up.

Oncve the daughter plants have leaves and roots, I doubt they obtain any nutrients from the parent plant. Most aquatic plants are like this. So separating them should not cause any issues. I find the very delicate "runners" often break just from the water change activity.

Thanks again. I just trimmed some yellow leaves but so far, so good!