Whats causing the shrinking of leaves - Amazon Sword

[digthemlows]

You can see one of the shorter leaves. I just bought these a week ago. Temp is 82.........Any ideas?

[Wahter]

Not sure how familiar you are with how they grow aquatic plants, but the older outer leaves with the long stems and paddle shaped leaves are the emersed growth. That's right, those leaves have been grown outside of the water. Plant farms do this because a.) most aquarium plants are amphibious and survive partially outside the water during dry season. b.) it's easier for the plants to access CO2 and no water to 'filter' out sunlight and c.) algae won't grow on the leaves. Also the plants are grown very closely together - this maximizes the height as they compete for the light. The submerged growth will look more like a sword (hence the common name "Amazon sword plant").

Here's a photo I took when I visited an aquatic plant farm in Singapore. You can see how they are grown.

You didn't list your conditions, but if the new leaves are coming in distorted or clear, or much smaller and don't grow out after a week or so, then you do need to add some fertilizers. How much light do you have and are you adding in CO2? Looks like you have enough light.

BTW, can't see clearly enough, but the darker green leaf on the left side of your photo looks like a Brazillian sword - Spathiphyllum tasson, which is more of a Terrarium (it won't last over a long time fully submerged).

Hope this helps.



Walter

[digthemlows]

Helps a lot. Thanks, and yes the left hand side as a brazilian sword and the LFS told me it would do great in a discus tank (with how stunted some of their discus are I shouldn't trust them) I'm not running CO2, that side of the tank gets natural sunlight from a window for 6 hours of the day, and I'm not fertilizing, or using a substrate (I grew swords in the past in the same tank with great results, maybe I was just lucky). Think I'll do some more reading around the site............thanks!

[limige]

any idea how hard your water is? what are you running for lights? sunlight is not usually good on a fish tank, creates algea from everything i've heard.

[Apistomaster]

Those swords definitely are beginning to make the transition from being grown immersed to submersed life. All the long stalked leaves will be replaced with the classic aquatic leaves over the next few months.

A little sunshine or a lot of indirect daylight can be helpful in growing aquatic plants. Just use some common sense if the algae is growing too fast, cut back the amount of sunlight hitting the tank.

[digthemlows]

Thanks! Yeah I have 2-3 new sprouts coming up from the bases now, we'll see what it looks like.........this place is soooo helpful! Thanks!

[GrillMaster]

Hey dig...

You can put a flourish tabs about 2" under the plants in the substrate. This will feed the swords until they get established.

I would try an replace the gravel though with something a little more plant freindly.

tc
Mark

[digthemlows]

Hey dig...

You can put a flourish tabs about 2" under the plants in the substrate. This will feed the swords until they get established.

I would try an replace the gravel though with something a little more plant freindly.

tc
Mark

Couple of threads down is my "changing the substrate" thread. We'll see how they do! Thanks!

[jerman]

Here's a good link that lists specific nutrient deficiencies and how they effect plant growth.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

[Apistomaster]

Your new substrate is much more plant friendly than the old coarse gravel. They should really begin to take off for you if you follow the fertilizer advice given.