jestep

I have a question about growing sword plants, Amazon, Marbled, Melon's, etc..

In my tank they generally grow long stems with smaller leaves at the top. My tank is 18" deep, and I've seen somProe grow 1 or 2 feet out of the tank. blem is that they never get full underwater, and after a while they end up as long leaf stems, with no more leaves in the water. Obviously, I want traditional swords with large leaves underwater. What is the cause of this?

This is a 75g Discus tank, and has 4x65w CF lighting, all 4 bulbs are 6700K. I use CO2, and substrate fertilizers and nothing else at the time. Tank is kept at about 86, with 2 - 3, 25 - 30% changes per week.

I'm assuming that some parameter isn't in range which is causing the abnormal growth. Anyway, if anyone knows what causes swords to grow like this, or what would contribute to it, I would appreciate it.

davemonkey

It's either the high temp, or the variety of sword you have has that leaf form. Can you post a pic?

jestep

It's probably the temp then. Every variety that I've had does it, even chain swords. I'll try to post a picture.

edwardn

I grew several different Amazons and they all grew to such an extend that landed in my compost pile! I reached a conclusion that growing them without CO2 and hardly, if any at all fertilisation would only lend them for a useful aquarium plants. Have look at my post: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/ge...nts-tanks.html
- that, and two other Amazons reached three ft in length and shaded most of my 180. I have a few Amazons in a little plastic tanks with no fertilisation, and they have hardly a few, short leaves. Likewise with water lily. Now, the Cryptocorynes at the right corner of the pic also are reaching water surface now and are branching so strongly, that i will have to do something with them, and I planted a little, three leafed plantlets this Spring. This is the problem with CO2 and levels of fertilisation, though I'm far from using 'recommended' levels of both.

I suspect that those knowlegdeable people, who so strongly suggest 'orbi et urbi' all that 'round the clock' fertilisations have to be also goat owners...

jestep

Don't have a digital camera here and my phone won't photograph through the glass, but here's a picture of a leaf I pruned out. This one's torn up quite a bit, but you get the idea.



They basically all end up looking like this. This obviously is abnormal growth for swords. Root structures are massive. The last plant I fully removed covered the entire bottom 48" x 18".

Also, the tank water is immaculately clean, so I was also wondering about some nutrient deficiency that it would be getting from the water column and not the substrate. Anubias, Lotus's and other plants seem to grow in a normal manner.

edwardn

Get one pond fertilizer tablet and shove it deep in the substrate close to an Amazon plant.

jestep

Reduced temp and increased fertilization, and they have all started down the path of normal sword plant growth. Probably should have eliminated one variable at a time, so that I could figure out what the cause was, but it may have been both.

nfrank

Stem height to leaf size ratio in particular Echindorus can be a function of day lenght. Some species (or hybrids) get taller with less than 10-12 hours. Other species when greater than 12-14.

I have also seen this happen with some swords i have kept which were severely crowded.... looking for more light or, as the previous poster indicated, when nutrient limited.

Finally, some Echinodorus species seem to have a tendancy to form floating leaves, like the Radican Sword and its hybrids (Echinodorus cordifolius). I see heart shaped leaves, so that might be what you have.