HoldingWine

That's correct. All of the emersed leaves on my Marsilea eventually rotted away. I think cutting them all down was probably the way to go.

mudboots

Glad to see the plants in the water. Everytime I've planted Marsilea I've lost the majority of the leaves as the plants acclimated and they started to come back after a couple of weeks. I don't test water conditions, so I can't offer any suggestions or forecasts for what you've got. The Hygro.bold should acclimate quickly though and is a fast grower.

Have you noticed bubbles coming up from the substrate yet (various gasses being produced)? I just noticed some from my 10 npt last night.

only120xs

Sorry, I didn't notice this post earlier!

I'd say I only lost 20% or so of the Marsilea. But it sure was a pain to get it planted, and I've had to go back twice and re-plant some of it as my snail rolls over everything.

No, I haven't noticed any bubbles from the substrate.

Yeah, I can already see the Hygro growth!

My "sword" in the upper left corner is growing at a crazy rate, and has a big spike coming out of the middle Is it a flower of some kind? Is it really a sword? I think it grew almost 1" the other night!

Dustymac

Patience...

1" overnight? That's nothing. Welcome to the downside of El Natural: pruning, pruning, pruning.

dwalstad

This sounds like progress, indeed. Your swordplant is having babies! The spike will develop blossoms and then new plants all along the spike. Try to keep the spike in the water so the growing tip doesn't dry out. Because this is a new tank where you want as much plant growth as possible, I wouldn't do any pruning for quite awhile. Later, you can plant the baby swords or give them away.

I understand about the Marsilea mess floating upwards. I had to use a small stone to keep the plants from dislodging and floating.

bratyboy2

i used a plant weight lol its working!!!

only120xs

Quick update:
The spike on the sword is now probably 20+ inches long, growing horizontally across the water surface. There is now a second spike about 3-4" as well.
The marsilia looks like it has some new growth in a couple of places, so I'm happy with that!
I'm also seeing new growth on the coffefolia and the stem plants.

Question:
So, when I got the first plants, I got a couple of random snails to inhibit anticipated algae. I'm now wondering if it was a mistake... While they appear to be doing their job, the past week I've actually started to see some algae in the tank, so the snail population is booming. What started out as 3 small snails has now turned into 9+ small to medium snails plus way more itty bitty ones than I can count. I don't actually mind the snails themselves, but I'm afraid they will damage my plants (though I have no concrete evidence that this is happening yet); I think I read somewhere that ramshorn snails can damage sword plants.
Any advice on this? Should I not worry about the plants? Should I try to control the population? If so, my preferred method would be to get a fish that will eat them, but I can't seem to find much that will work in a community tank the size of mine- the loaches all seem to be too big (especially considering that you have to have 5 or more), puffers are too aggressive, and cichlids are too aggressive also, right? What about an angel? Will they eat snails?

HoldingWine

Yoyo loaches really don't get too large (4-5" range). I've read they should be kept in groups of 3 or more, but I really don't know how accurate that is. They don't seem to need the company of others to feel secure in their environment as say, tetras would. I have two right now and they seem pretty content. I've also kept one solo in a 30 gallon before and he seemed fine. I know that seems like blasphemy to some , but from what I observed, he was more than okay with having the whole bottom to himself.

They're also pretty fun to watch rummaging around looking for snails.

dwalstad

Ignore what you've heard and read. Ramshorn snails only eat plant leaves that are dying and decomposing. [Allelochemicals produced by living aquatic plants keep snails at bay; once the plant is dead, the allelochemicals leach out and the snails move in to feast on the remains.]

Snails actually help plants by cleaning their leaves of algae and bacteria. I have snails, including Ramshorn, in all my tanks and consider them to be helpful.

I understand that some exotic snail species eat plant leaves, but Ramshorn aren't one of them.

Consider snails a bonus for your tanks.

Diana K

Loaches for a 46 gallon bowfront with peaceful community fish:
Sidthemunkis
Kuhlies- mouth is too small for snails, but I think they eat baby snails. I have adult snails in my tanks with Kuhlies, but only a very slow increase.
Kubotai
Zebra Loaches

I have a Horsehead Loach in mine. (Have never found more to get him some friends.)

Yes, keep any of these in groups, they are social fish.