Narrow Sword Advice

[Aysvin]

Where I live there aren't any local fish stores so I bought what was labeled as a Narrow Leaf Amazon Sword from Petsmart. After taking it out of the tube it turns out I got 5 individual little plants, so I gently rinsed them off, trimmed the dead leaves and roots, cut the tips off of the good roots, and planted them through out my 10 gallon tank.

Each one produces at least one new leaf a week which will grow rapidly until it is about the size of the others but then it will stop. The others haven't gotten taller either.

I have good lighting, good filtration, airation, 4 fish, 1 snail that never even climbs on them, and have used a few API Root Tabs. It's been about 1 1/2 months now (at least) but they're stuck at about 3 inches tall.

Any advice on how to make them increase in height?

 

[clarkm]

Do u use root tabs ? Also u should raise the plant a little bit just so u can see the start if the roots. They don't like to be buried that deep

 

[Mebbid]

They should be fine where they are but I agree, root tabs are a necessity at this point. The flourish root tabs will work, you can make your own like i do, or you could probably easily buy some DIY ones on this forum for super cheap.

 

[Niccobacci11]

He said that he used root tabs with them about half way threw the last paragraph

 

[Aysvin]

I'm a 'she' but yes, I did indeed state that I use API ROOT TABS.

I guess you're the only one who read the whole thing. Thank you.

 

[Aysvin]

As for not having them higher in the gravel, they don't stay put any shallower.

 

[dcutl002]

Well, they look good. Nice and green.

 

[Mebbid]

I did miss that, sorry. My eyes tend to glaze over when looking at lots of text. School has ruined me at this point

The API root tabs are pretty sub par as far as effectiveness goes. They also need to be replaced monthly. I really only saw large gains in height with my swords when I switched to a dif root tab. When I switched from the API / flourish tabs to the diy tabs my amazon sword went from the approx 6" max height it was at for approx 4 months to around 20" tall a month later.

 

[Old Scales]

Also note that there are many species of swords not counting all the hybrids. It is possible that it is a type that stays relatively small. I've have two types that never got more than 8-10" tall which was exactly what I wanted for a small tank. OS.

 

[Niccobacci11]

I'm a 'she' but yes, I did indeed state that I use API ROOT TABS.



I guess you're the only one who read the whole thing. Thank you.

Sorry should have worded that differently. My bad.

 

[Aysvin]

Oh no, totally fine

 

[Aysvin]

Any other advice besides root tabs?

I also forgot to mention that I have Tetra Flora Pride Iron-Intensive Fertilizer. I put a bit of that in with every other water change or so.