Red Tiger Lotus not, err, red?
 

Last month, I received some Tiger Lotus bulbs (sold as red tiger lotus) from an online vendor. Both bulbs are starting to put forth leaves, supplied with Flourish tabs, but the leaves look green and not red.

Does it take a while for the red to pronounce itself or am I most likely the victim of the dreaded "swapped for another similar plant in stock" practice.
;)

Plant is still nice, I'm not bitter (although red would be cool), just wondering what I might have.

The same thing happened to me. I have seen pics of Red Tigers for sale that weren't red at all. They were dark green and brown looking. I just bought a lotus from a lfs that is completely pink!

It is a little misleading to call the plant a red tiger lotus, but apparently this species come in another color which is a lime green.... So these lotuses are red compared to the green ones.

Does it look like mine here:
http://img26.exs.cx/img26/9332/lotus1.jpg
Not blood red, but still quite red.

The color depends on nutrient/light levels. Gets redder in good light. Pink color is due to nutrient deficiency, I have seen that in my tank.

My leaves are only a week old, but the are green for sure at the moment. Not nearly red like your pic!

I got mine from aquariumplants.com Again, not slamming them, but maybe they were out of stock on the "red tiger lotus" and sent me green ones -- after all, I only ordered 1 and they sent me 2 bulbs, probably to make up for it.

I ordered this:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/cgi-bin/cart/cw723.html

But mine is looking more like this at the moment:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/cgi-bin/cart/ww722.html

Still, a nice plant.

If your leaves are coming out green then they will stay green, Red Lotus bulbs will start out red/maroon/brown at the very first sight of a leaf but get better color with age and good nutrients. You can help them color up.
At the defense of the seller they have no way of knowing unless the bulbs are started by them first but then they are very sensitive to ship. Thats why normally you get 8-10 bare bulbs and usually get a mix of greens/reds in the end and you decide which to keep.
Its a 50/50 shot on their part to send a bare bulb and call it a "red one" unless they are from a red mother plant of their own in a tank. The greens IMO are a great looking plant too. :proud:

btw, I also got the red one in pic from aquariumplants.com

thanks guys, this is good info!

yeh, I still like the green ones and it makes sense if the bulbs have no identifying traits. does a lotus actually produce addtional bulbs as it spreads? or does it just spread by runners?

Mine has a reddish sheen to it, so I still have hope it can turn red.

The mother bulb will keep producing new sprouts over time. Each sprouted growth point can be separately from the mother bulb after it gains some size.

Urkevitz, I bet yours is actually the red one. Give it bright light and it should turn red.

I think maybe a lack of Fe and micros might be part of the problem. I have not been dosing them too often because they cloud up my water.

I got some of the same bulbs from on of the same online vendors mentioned in this thread. They are not as red as some of the lotus I have had, they are more green with a red shine, not the DEEP RED that I was looking for, or most people are looking for. The leaves seem a lot more fragile too, and tend to grow to the surface rather then stay close to the bottom, even with 4.2 w/gal...

I dose Fe heavy in my tank (water column and substrate) and had no change in appearance. I am ready to tare them our and find some place that has what I was looking for.


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I have made several orders from aquariumplants.com and have had nothing but good things to say about them, so dont take my post as a bash against any online sellers that have been mentioned/aluded to :icon_conf

I think that is their modus operandi because your story is exactly like mine including sending me “more” green bulbs.

Here is the thing with a Lotus plant... once you let one leaf hit the water surface, which btw Im also guilty as charged with my first one's, they will continually grow stems fast and straight up to the surface!! No stoppin it.
Dont ask me why but this is very common. It seems to put the plants into a different growing mode.
I have grown lotus's on 3 different occasions (greens and reds) and all were grown in a 3+ watt lighted tanks and only once did I have this growth pattern occur and it was the first time when I thought how nice it looked with the "lily pad" effect.
This type of growth will never stop once 1 leaf hits the surface. You must keep them pruned for a bushy , low growing effect.

My lotus is in full lily pad mode, however I have yet to let one hit the surface. I need to buy something to trim the lotus so I don't have to stick my hand in the tank every day.