new plants, now what?

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Evaunitone

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Dec 12, 2009
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Ok, so yesterday I fiiiiinally got my plants in the mail. I got two little pots of dwarf hair grass which I planted with no problems. I got an anubias that looks green and healthy as well. I also got a red tiger lotus that looks like someone pooped it out. It was basically a tangle of rotten dead leaves and a small bulb thing with some very non-alive looking roots hanging off of it. The leaves all fell off and now the bulb is just floating in the water. What should I do about that? Also, I got a few blyxa aubertii and only one of them had roots. They looks like crap and I can't get them to stay in the sand because 3 out of the 4 blyxa only have about 5mm of root, not enough to hold them in the sand, so they are also just floating around on the surface of the water with the lotus bulb. Any suggestions?

I'm doing the EI dosing method and have one 39watt 10,000k bulb along with a blue bulb as per some of your suggestions (originally it would have been two 39watt bulbs, but since this is apparently an HO light, I got one blue bulb so I wouldn't have too much light. 20 gallon long by the way. Oh, I also have DIY CO2 going.

Just wondering if you guys have some advice on what to do with the lotus terd and the crappy looking blyxa.

As a side complaint, I ordered myriophyllum but got an extra dwarf hair grass instead :( Oh well.
 
that sucks. sorry to here it. who did you order from?
i would definately consider ordering plants from forum members instead of companies next time.

i dont know much about bulb plants so i cant give you any info there.

the blyxa should stay down if you stick it in enough. if you cant get it to stay down you could anchor it down with plant anchors.
 
For the tiger lotus, that's normal. let the bulb sink on it's own and it should start growing soon. Both of mine were that bad when I got them and now they are huge and beautiful. See:
 

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where did you order from?

the lotus you can just plant the bulb. those tend to be a little tricky to ship and can die back unless they just sent crappy plants to start with.

with sand its a little harder to plant. dig a hole put the plant in cover it up with sand and press down then cover it up again with sand. you might need to get sand in the middle of the plant to help hold it down.
 
I got my plants from Aqua Botanic. I don't think I'll be shopping with them again. The tiger lotus bulb did end up settling down on the sand, actually right where I wanted it to be. The blyxa are still floating but I'll plant them down in a little bit. I suppose I should get some root tabs since I only have sand and most (all?) of my plants are root feeders.

Can anyone suggest another kind of plant I might want in my tank? See above for the tank conditions. I hope to have a carpet of hair grass along the front of my tank eventually, but the background is all up in the air at this point since my blyxa look hideous and only 2 of them are staying planted at this point.

p.s. I put 6 ghost shrimp in there just for fun and two of them have already had to be rescued from the filters. Any advice on how to keep them out of there?
 
FYI, I have great luck ordering from aquariumplants.com (for future planting needs). Glad to hear the lotus settled. Give it a bit as they do go dormant and it should perk up and get some beautiful leaves.


An idea for the blyxa that I use with my rotala. I tie them to a small rock and let it sit on top of the sand or gravel (depending on which tank) until there are enough roots to plant.

Rotala indica is a great, easy growing plant, so is ludwigia repens. Crypts are also among my favorites.

If you are in the states, I plan to trim my rotala soon, and I ship for just the price of shipping, nothing extra. I'd rather send it to a good home than toss it ya know :)

For the shrimp, try using a piece of panty hose (clean, no soap or products) tied to the intake. Also your LFS might sell the mesh media bags for filters.


As for roots tabs, I use the total root tabs from aquariumplants.com (yeah I love that place) They come a quantity of 75 for $10.00.
 
post a pic of the tank i do better when i can see what you are working with in terms of other plants to get.

as for the plants you could let them float for a few days or tie them down. if fish keep knocking the plants up you can use a teracotta pot knock the bottom out and put it around the plant. this will allow it to take root and not get knocked up.
 
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