Lotus (Nymphaea pubescens)

nriesen

what a great plant. I have two varieties in my tank. The dward is the most mysterious. It has only put one pad up as long as I have had it. They seem to like a lot of fertilizer. I use both a seachem root fertilizer under the soil as wll as KENT liquids. I have mine in white sandy soil and found that it is very important to keep the plant very shallow. If you have an under-performing Lotus, scrape soil away to expose the tuber or root and it will take off. The pads that they put up are awesome and last for about 2 weeks in mytanks. My angels eat them if I dont keep em well fed.

Captain Hooked

I have Nymphaea Stellata (AKA Dwarf Red Lilly), and adore it. It hugs the substrate closely, and whether this is a case of its typical growth habit, or my high lighting (5 WPG 6700K CF)- I cannot say. It ventures out in a radial pattern, yet remains low. It grows faster than you might imagine, at about a leaf every two days. The color has a bit of a copper to it, which is rarely well depicted in pictures. Its leaves are thin and delicate. At first I was concerned that my high water flow might damage it, but it adjusted accordingly, and shows no sign of weakness. It currently resides in a 20L with sand capped Shultz soil substrate and Seachem macro and iron ferts. It makes a great easy care focal point in any size tank.

Ignignokt

This thing is awsome, I have 2x of these in my 75g and one has shot up several 4-6" pads in the past 4 months that I have had it, the other one I have has grown quite bushy but has yet to send up anything to the surface despite the fact that they both grow in exactly the same conditions. Also they send out a lot of roots in a radial pattern and as such will require some trimming from time to time or they will quickly choke out other plants and start trying to climb the walls of your tank.