What is This Plant?

[Noah0504]

What is the plant on the right? I'm pretty sure this is the plant that my girlfriend bought a couple of months ago for out 5 gallon tank that houses our betta. The reason I ask is because I am concerned about the color. The plant have really grown well. Today when I was cleaning the tank, I did a little maintenance on it. It was becoming pretty full, so I split the plant and moved one to another area and another piece to my other tank. The color has become shades of green, red and brown. None of the pieces are transparent though. I want to know if this is normal for this plant, or is it dying? The piece I moved to the bigger tank should hopefully tell me some of this in the future as I really think if anything is going to grow well, it will be there.

If the plant is suppose to look like what I described, I would like to add another piece to the other side of my 29 gallon tank. If not, I might as well just toss the other non-planted pieces. They are mostly brown.

 

[aqua_chem]

Fair warning, I'm not very good at IDing sword varieties.

Looks like a melon sword, and there are varieties that will darken up under certain conditions. It also may be a deficiency issue, so a picture would be helpful.

 

[Noah0504]

Here are a couple of pictures. They're not fantastic, but my camera battery is dead. It's charging now. I can post others later. One is a piece of the plant in the tank, and the other is the pieces in water until I plant them.

 

[Peyton]

The two plants in the first post are echinodorus tenellus and some type of crypt. The second two pics are also crypts, maybe c. undulata but not 100% sure. Crypt IDs are difficult.

 

[aqua_chem]

Second set of pictures definitely look like a crypt. The one on the left in your first picture is clearly Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (microsword).

 

[boadams87]

Looks like you need root tabs or excel. Its lacking iron

 

[blert]

Crypts don't like to be mucked with. Since you split it and moved it about then it could just be not feeling very well after being "fondled". Give it a root tab, some light and some time.

 

[Noah0504]

Crypts don't like to be mucked with. Since you split it and moved it about then it could just be not feeling very well after being "fondled". Give it a root tab, some light and some time.

Well, if everyone is right about it being a type of crypt, then I sure wish I would have known that before! What I did is just more proof that research is key.

I didn't know what the plant was, but because I was trying to clean the tank up as much as I could, I split the plant. Like I said, I planted two pieces in the original tank and a couple pieces in my larger tank. When I got the larger thank and actually tried to do as much research before I did anything with it. For the plants I bought, I picked up some liquid plant fertilizer (or food, whatever you want to call it). This has helped, and with this plant some of the color has already started to come back. However, one of the pieces I planted in the larger tank has started looking worse as the day has gone on. I'll give it some time and hope it pulls through, but I have to say, losing a plant won't be as heartbreaking as losing a fish!

Also, when looking up information on crypts, I ran into something called "crypt melt." Yeah... I wish I had known before!

Thanks for the help, everyone.

 

[blert]

Well, if everyone is right about it being a type of crypt, then I sure wish I would have known that before! What I did is just more proof that research is key.

I didn't know what the plant was, but because I was trying to clean the tank up as much as I could, I split the plant. Like I said, I planted two pieces in the original tank and a couple pieces in my larger tank. When I got the larger thank and actually tried to do as much research before I did anything with it. For the plants I bought, I picked up some liquid plant fertilizer (or food, whatever you want to call it). This has helped, and with this plant some of the color has already started to come back. However, one of the pieces I planted in the larger tank has started looking worse as the day has gone on. I'll give it some time and hope it pulls through, but I have to say, losing a plant won't be as heartbreaking as losing a fish!

Also, when looking up information on crypts, I ran into something called "crypt melt." Yeah... I wish I had known before!

Thanks for the help, everyone.

Crypts are root feeders and therefore will benefit much more from root tabs then from water column ferts. Just FYI.

 

[Noah0504]

Crypts are root feeders and therefore will benefit much more from root tabs then from water column ferts. Just FYI.

I'll see if I can pick some up. We'll see how they do, but I'm not sure they'll make it.

Also, since we are on the topic of plants, I have one other question to add on to it.

I've been reading about the right lighting to get plants to do well. I bought a Aqueon Floramax bulb. It's supposed to be higher in the red and blue spectrum (which I do know is good for plants), and it actually casts a pretty nice glow that makes the colors of the fish pop a little more. Do you think this was a good idea?

 

[Coursair]

Don't throw your Crypts away. They can come back from the dead !! Many melt, most bounce back !!!

 

[Noah0504]

They're all still in the water. No worries!