Red Tiger Lotus not, err, red?

[Anthony]

A bought a lotus last week that was pink. It has since gotten yellow, but has already put out 3 new stems. I have 3.25wpg, and know the tank that it was in did not have high wattage. All other plants are growing like weeds. Is it still adjusting to my tank?

[Robert H]

If you bought them as bulbs only, with no growth, its really impossible to know if they are red or green until they grow leaves. If they were red, they would be red from the first tiny little leaf, however there are green leaves with red spots and the spots may develop later.

[bastalker]

I got a lotus from Marcel a couple of months ago, an the leaves were all red. Although the plant is growing great, an has trippled the amount of leaves it once had, the leaves are looking more green than red. I have not had a stem reach the surfcace yet. It just stays low an multiplies rather quickly!!

There is a hint of red in the leaves, but they are looking more green than red right now. I dose the correct micros, an macros, maybe its the low light I have in the tank. I dunno.

[Anthony]

Hey, do you guys seperate your lotus' from the bulbs?

[Opiesilver]

I buy about 300,000 of these bulbs every 2 weeks. Our suppliers try their best to just harvest red ones but even they get them confused sometimes. We try to have about 100 sprouted for our own use all the time but it seems we ship them faster than we grow them. I would estimate that 80% of all the tiger lotus bulbs on the market pass through our warehouse at one point or another.

Sometime this fall we plan on building on to our warehouse and adding another 10 to 15 nymphaea species to sell to the general public. I've already got over 160 more species of true aquatic plants lined up to add to our offerings in the next couple months.

[Opiesilver]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Hey, do you guys separate your lotus' from the bulbs?

I just pop them off the bulb with my fingers right at the base where it comes out of the bulb.

[motifone]

Couple questions:

So, if I detach the plant from the bulb, does the plant still put forth new leaves?

Does the detached bulb, when placed elsewhere, produce another plant?

Lastly, is there anyway to train a Lotus plant to stop putting leaves to the surface. Both my Lotus plants have a few leaves that have stopped mid-tank height (since adding more light), but generally the new leaves are shooting to the surface as lilly pads.

thanks
steve