Plants dying

[PygmyMitch]

I need help in identifying the plant on the second and third picture. I believe the plant on the first picture is called Echinodorus gabrielii.

The plant on the first picture has been in my tank for a couple of months now and started off really green, but has slowly turned yellow, to being transparent. the second plant has been in tank for less than a week, and has started loosing its colour and also lost a few of its leafs. The third plant has been in my tank for easy over 6 months and seems to be doing well

Water levels are as followed:
Ammonia 0.00ppm
Nitrite 0.00ppm
Nitrate 5.00ppm
pH 7.4
dKH 7 (124.6ppm)
dGH 6 (106.8ppm)

 

[Byron]

This I suspect is a nutrient deficiency. What if any plant additives do you use?

I think the light is not the issue, given the look of the stem plant. So nutrients probably are.

On the ID, second is a Vallisneria species, probably V. spiralis, the "corkscrew" form which remains smaller as in the photo. I am not much when it comes to identifying stem plants as my conditions never favoured them so I had few of them, but this one might be a Hygrophyla species. It is doing extremely well, probably using what nutrients there are for itself.

 

[PygmyMitch]

i have been using ‘flourish’ it says use half a cap (2.5ml) per 125l once or twice a week. So i have i have just been trying my best to add just a drop out the bottle once a week. I dont want to over dose my tank with it, as my tank is 48l

 

[Byron]

i have been using ‘flourish’ it says use half a cap (2.5ml) per 125l once or twice a week. So i have i have just been trying my best to ass just a drop out the bottle once a week. I dont want to over dose my tank with it, as my tank is 48l

OK, assuming this is the Flourish Comprehensive Supplement which is a very good product. But sword plants are heavy feeders, and a Flourish Tab would likely solve your problems with this plant. One next to the Vallisneria wouldn't do any harm either. This would avoid increasing the liquid at this time. The tabs somehow do not get into the upper water column so no algae issues and no fish problems, two things that can be linked to liquid fertilizers if overdosed.

 

[PygmyMitch]

Yes thats the product. So is the first plant apart of the sword family ? and assuming the Vallisneria is the plant in the second picture ?

If I get some tabs, do I use them as well as using the Flourish as I am. Or do I stop using the Flourish. I do also have a Microsorium Mini which is doing well also!

 

[Byron]

So is the first plant apart of the sword family ? and assuming the Vallisneria is the plant in the second picture ?

Yes to both questions. However, the sword name is not valid, I need to dig into my notes on Echinodorus so will post momentarily to explain.

If I get some tabs, do I use them as well as using the Flourish as I am. Or do I stop using the Flourish. I do also have a Microsorium Mini which is doing well also!

Yes, the two products do different things, sort of. The "sword" is an Echinodorus, no doubt, and these are heavey root feeders so a tab next to the crown and replaced every 3-4 months will really do wonders. Stem plants benefit more from liquid supplements.

 

[PygmyMitch]

Okay thank you! Any recommendation on which tab to get ?

So am i best to put a tab next to the Vallisneria or just stick with the liquid flourish for this plant ?

 

[Essjay]

I use Seachem Flourish root tabs.

 

[PygmyMitch]

I use Seachem Flourish root tabs.

I will get some of them ordered!

 

[Byron]

Echinodorus gabrielii was described as a "species" by Rataj in 1990. I have his description, and it is questionable to say the least. The Kew site Plants of the World which is one of the accepted authorities for botanical species says this name is unplaced; unplaced names are names that cannot be accepted, nor can they be put into synonymy.

Lehtonen (2008) did a phylogenetic analysis of Echinodorus species and had this to say about the subject "species":

Several species of Echinodorus have been described on the basis of cultivated material of unknown origin encountered in the aquarium trade, or sterile plants. Because natural species have been largely replaced by cultivars and hybrids produced for commercial purposes (Kasselmann 2003), species descriptions based on such material are dubious at best. Names that are considered to be dubious for these reasons are listed here.​

​

Echinodorus gabrielii Rataj (1990: 14 – 15; 2004: 132). Type. Cult. In Bot. Inst. Praha, Rataj s.n. (holotype PR).​

The inference from both sources above is that this "species" does not exist in the wild and is a cultivar from one or more other species.

Rataj's work had merits but also was full of errors in his description of several "species." He even described two species native to Africa, which is completely erroneous (Kasselmann 2003, Lehtonen 2008). Confusion has existed for the past few decades over the number of species in the genus Echinodorus, and many have been known under different names. In his earlier study of the genus, Rataj (1975) listed 47 species. A major revision by the botanists R.R. Haynes and L.B. Holm-Nielsen (1994) listed 26 species. In his 2004 revision, Rataj increased the number of species to 62. More recent work by Samuli Lehtonen—incorporating phylogenetic (DNA) analysis—proposed 28 valid species (Lehtonen, 2007). As of 2013, The Plant List and the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (maintained by Kew) have 30 distinct species listed for Echinodorus.

 

[Byron]

I will get some of them ordered!

Yes, the Flourish Tabs are the best I have found, not to say there may be others, but these are very good and safe. And I would give the Vallisneria a tab, rather than increasing the liquid.

 

[PygmyMitch]

thanks for your help @Byron. Very much appreciated!