Mangroves spouting brown leaves, why? *updated*

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Legacy

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Sep 27, 2005
Messages
227
Location
Hacienda Heights, CA
Hey everyone,

About a week ago 32 Mangroves were shipped to my friend from Hawaii, spent 1 week in his sump with only about an inch of the pods above the water line and under a 13W fluorescent light.

They then were moved to my 40G Brackish tank where they're in a 3" deep sand bed, about half the pod is exposed to air, and they're under a 20W 24" 5500K Fluorescent bulb.

I noticed that the leaves are growing brown which makes me think I'm losing them. What am I doing incorrectly? What is typically the cause for leaf discoloration?

Thanks,
Dave
 
I haven't dealt much with mangroves but since they are trees that live in the tropics I would guess they need a lot of light...13W or 20W might not be enough. Nutrient deficiency would be my next thought, but with such low light I think i would remedy the light first and worry about nutrients later. Just a thought.
 
What type of lighting would you recommend? This is just a temporary holding tank. These are going into a 200G Display tank but that tank isn't ready yet. Can I light it with some spot lamps typicaly used for reptiles?
 
Since there are alot of wild mangroves growing around where I live, I've noticed a few things about them. The most obvious is the nutrient loaded mud they thrive in. I don't see too many living in sand.

The bigger problem you are probably having is the lack of strong light they are receiving. IMO a Power compact bulb would be better than a NO bulb. A spot lamp might work, but I have no experience in that area.
 
My new tank is supposed to have Two 48" 40W Dual Bulb Fluorescents with 6500K Daylight Bulbs. I read that lighting wasn't very critical with these trees, but I imagine a good amout of light wont do much harm.
 
Are the browning leaves off the part of the stem that used to be submerged?

I've no experience with Mangroves, but fwiw, with aquatic plants it can be hard for submersed growth to transfer to emersed culture, and old submerged growth will typically die. Cavan Allen (guru) suggests its best to gradually adapt the plant by lowering the water line through evaporation, then propogating from emersed growth. Another method is to mist the submerged growth daily, preferably with a mild fert solution, then gradually decrease to weekly misting as you get established emersed growth. Since Mangroves see different tides in nature, they probably aren't very sensitive, but would still suggest misting often, or if possible, increase the water line in the 40g to near the height of your friends tank, then gradually lower it.

You may find it interesting that with aquatic plants its much easier to switch from emersed to submersed culture. If this is true of Mangroves, maybe it will be easier to adapt your 40g's growth to the 200g.

(edited for grammar, clarity)
 
Sorry to bring up my old thread, but I need more help!

I had to move my mangrove saplings out of my 40G tank because the lighting was simply not good enough. What I did was I put them into a 25G Rubbermaid Container with a Coralife 10,000K PC, 3" sand bed, 78-80 degree heated water, 1.016SG; 12hr photo period and plastic wrap to keep the humidity up.

The pods are growing much better than they were before but the leaves are stil browning. It could be because some of the pods got submerged, but even the large leaves are browning. Here's what I need to know...

What is a good over the counter fertilizer I can use? I want something easy to use for right now that I can just dose the water with to keep these guys growing and alive. I've already lost 1/2 of my stock and I'm not looking to lose anymore. The sand is brand new also... so it has zero nutrients in it.

HELP!

Thanks again in advance,
Dave
 
You may have seen these already, but here's a couple interesting and informative links from searching about Mangroves
http://toptropicals.com/html/aqua/plants/mangrove/mangrove_eng.htm
http://wrigley.usc.edu/faculty/jacobson/mains/biocomplexity02.html
(There's also a note on the first one about not keeping any of the green part of the plant submerged.)

It doesn't appear that the plant is very demanding. Seachem's Flourish Nitrogen, Flourish Phosphorous, and regular Flourish would give them everything they need. You could probably skip the Phosphorus if your tap has PO4, and Flourish if your water is high in minerals. You could use another commercial fert that offers macros and traces if so inclined, including a terrestrial fert since there's no fish in there.

Option 2 is trying fish food since Mangroves are apparently happy with organics and even low concentrations of N and P.

Option 3 is there's a meet for the Southern California Aquatic Plant Enthusiasts on 4/22 at 1pm in Ocean Blue in Orange. You could definitely pick up ferts there, and there's many people going that can explain and show how to make your own solutions -- its really much easier than it seems. Bring two bottles and I'll make you solutions if you want. Gurus will be aquascaping a tank, too.
 
CZCZ,

Thanks, I'll try to come out if I can; I typically work on Saturdays. I dropped bunch of my carnivore pellets in the water as well as a few turtle pellets I had to see if that might help the situation. I also buried some of them under the roots.

I'm going out to the LFSs tomorrow to hunt for a few hard to find species so I'll probably see if I can get some Seachem Ferts while I'm at it.

I'll keep you posted. Maybe I'll see you at the SCAPE Meet.
 
Back
Top Bottom