LFS Plant Identification

[SorryEh]

Yesterday I picked myself up an amazing BN pleco and in the chaos of trying to catch her one of the plants came into the net with her. I did not notice till I got home. I decided hey lets put this in and see if it grows and I'll try to identify it. I have never kept live plants yet because of my cichlids but I am setting up a small 10 gal shrimp tank and they could thrive there in a couple days. So here it is, I think it may be broken off pieces so I would also like to know if its possible they will re-root. Thanks for any help

 

[Colin_T]

It looks like a piece of Cabomba.
If conditions are good and it gets sufficient light it will grow.

 

[SorryEh]

Ah okay, thank you!, I will work on getting a home for this plant

 

[SorryEh]

Well from my quick research it looks like they like PH no higher than 7.5 which is worrysome, I keep my cichlids at 7.8. I will attempt to put them in a plant pot to protect them from the plant destroyers.

 

[Colin_T]

It will grow in a variety of conditions and is considered a weed in some states. A pH of 7.8 is fine. It does have soft leaves tho, so you need to handle with care because if you crush the stem or leaves it will rot.

 

[SorryEh]

Okay, I had a small plant pot so I set it up there with my sand substrate and put it on one side of the tank and have that light on, I have read about needing to fertilize plants, what's the best way to fertilize this one?

 

[Colin_T]

You can add liquid plant fertilisers but for one plant that is a waste. If you do want to try liquid then get an iron based fertiliser. I used Sera Florena but there are plenty of other brands, and it depends on what is available to you. Most of the other nutrients come from fish food and waste in the water (ammonia & phosphate).

My preferred method of growing plants is in 1 litre plastic icecream containers. You get a small plastic container that has no holes in and holds water. You put an inch of gravel on the bottom. Then a thin layer of granulated garden fertiliser. You put a 6mm layer of red clay on top of the fertiliser. Dry the clay and crush it into a power before putting it on the fertiliser. Then cover that with gravel to fill the container up.

You plant the plant in the gravel and as its roots grow down and hit the clay and fertiliser, the plant takes off and goes nuts. The clay stops the fertiliser leaching into the water and provides lots of iron to the plant. The granulated garden fertiliser provides any nutrients the plant doesn't get from the water or clay.

 

[SorryEh]

Okay, do you know how I can secure the plants? no matter how many times I try they eventually just float loose of the sand

 

[Colin_T]

It's a matter of burying a sufficient amount of the plant's stem so it doesn't float up. Once the plant has been growing for a few weeks it will have a root system that will hold it in the gravel/ sand. Until that happens the plant could be pulled out of the substrate and float to the surface. If that happens you can leave the plant on the surface until it has grown a bit and then try again.

A lot of plants like Ambulia, Cabomba, Hydrilla/ Elodia & Hygrophila sp can all grow floating on the surface and they eventually produce roots at each node (set of leaves) if grown like this. You can then bury the stem lengthwise in the substrate or plant it normally.

If worse comes to worse you can buy lead plant anchors. They are thin strips of lead that you carefully wrap around the base of plants when you plant them, and the lead holds the plant down so it doesn't float away. However, you have to be careful wrapping the lead around the plant because if you damage the stem it will rot.

The piece of Cabomba you have is probably best left to float for a bit until it has grown to 4 inches or more, then planted.

 

[SorryEh]

Sounds good, I will let it float

 

[SorryEh]

Wowza, the growth on these is crazy, its been 1 day and the stem has doubled in size! One question, I believe I have read that you can't use carbon filtration with live plants, I am currently using carbon to help keep my tannins under control, should I remove this?

 

[seangee]

Wowza, the growth on these is crazy, its been 1 day and the stem has doubled in size! One question, I believe I have read that you can't use carbon filtration with live plants, I am currently using carbon to help keep my tannins under control, should I remove this?

Think you have just answered your own question. If its doubled in size in 24 hours the carbon is not hurting

 

[SorryEh]

Good point