Being Patient With Your Plants (Photos)

[Buck]

I cant remember the thread that it was in but we were discussing the dreaded , unexplained meltdown of plants. Many times we are quick to pull plants that seem to have died or are not quite what we expected. I managed a couple of comparison photos of the good things that can happen when we wait them out.
Momotaro had sent me a couple of plants a while back and I was kinda excited about the Barclaya longifolia he had sent. They were small but very healthy and I planted them. Over the next 2 weeks they started dropping leaves one by one until there was nothing left but substrate and I wanted to cry !

In the top highlighted box you can see just 2 of the leaves left of the B. longifolia and they are melting. In the bottom box is a barren lotus bulb.



I never touched the substrate and 2 weeks after the meltdown I saw in that same spot a tiny red leaf growing. I thought I was seeing things and I left it be. Its been 2 more weeks or so and as you can see now the plant is making a miraculous comeback ! I am sooooo glad i did not disturb the substrate or worst yet pull the dying plant out and dispose of it !




Here is another example of major change... check out these two Kleiner bar swords he sent me. I didnt realize it at the time but these must have been grown emersed. I almost parted with these because they were not the most attractive plant. That would have been a bad mistake on my part to jump the gun and discard them ! As they grew out new leafs I trimmed off the original ones leaving these beautiful plants !

Before...



After...



The meltdown and rebirth of a plant is very common , especially with the crypt family. They hate being moved or shipped and will sometimes disappear before your eyes for no good reason. Be sure to give them some time before doing anything drastic and it just may payoff for you.

[Pseud]

That's nice advice...

...I probably shouldn't have pitched my shinnersia rivularis!

[sarahbobarah]

True that!!!

I have a trashcan full of people's discarded bulbs (what can I say, I work at a pet store) and I would say 99% have recovered for me. The 1% would have to be the onion bulbs that I can't seem to grow.

[trckrunrmike]

I shouldn't touch my see-thru glosso then.... oops

[bigpow]

cool substrate!
Is that eco-complete?

[Buck]

It is eco Yes, but the larger light colored stone was an ignorant add-in mistake.

The plants with the best "comeback" ability will normally be plants with rhyzomes, tubers or heavy root feeders.
Most ferns and rhyzome plants can lose every leaf and still comeback.

Here is another example of that. These are Bolbitus rhyzomes in a 10 gallon tank... Would you have kept these or thrown them in the trash ?



Here they are again in the corner of my 75G after a little TLC.

[Jdinh04]

Good advice Buck, same thing happened to my blyxa, but it grew back fast. I am again having the same problems with a new substrate, but hopefully they'll adapt to the new substrate and start growing fast again.

[guaiac_boy]

Nice post. My impatience has cost me many, many crypts, I'm sure. They don't respond well to being moved about on a weekly basis .

[Hoppy]

Originally Posted by Jdinh04

Good advice Buck, same thing happened to my blyxa, but it grew back fast. I am again having the same problems with a new substrate, but hopefully they'll adapt to the new substrate and start growing fast again.

Bingo!! A comment that fits my present needs exactly! I have three little Blyxa now that are a sickly shade of yellowish tan, but have nice looking white roots. What are the odds they will recover?

[Momotaro]

Solid advice, Buck. Solid advice.

The plants we deal with are a lot tougher than most people realize. At times we over pamper them. There is nothing wrong with that, but when you pamper, you tend to give up on them the second they go bad. You figure "I've done all I can and the plant still crashed on me" and you toss it. Sit tight, and give it time.

If it is a bulb or a rooted plant, leave the plant where it is. Leave it there until the bulb started to rot or the roots begin to melt, then toss it. Stems? If they struggle, try floating them. Stem plants often throw off new shoots when you float them. Odds are the new stems will be adjusted to your water parameters and you can trim them and plant them.

Hoppy's Blyxa japonica? It is a delicate plant, but it is a tough one. Gee whiz, the plant has adapted to environs around the world, it can adapt to your aquarium! Plant it and make sure it has good light. Yellow/tan isn't far off from the color of healthy plants in my aquarium so it can't be that bad! Just keep it in the substrate and wait it out.

Mike

[medicineman]

How about the plants (especially the stems) in my tank? after a 2-3 days heat wave of 29 C+, I'm pretty sure they are dead for good. I mean these stems got no rhyzome or bulb as a dormant state, waiting for the right time to bounce back. The stems are rotting and broken form the roots. The leaves are falling. The water temp of my tank is not getting low to 24-25 C any sooner without repair to the chiller. I only manage 27-27,5 C with a huge fan on the top of the tank. To make things worse they are polluting the water and now I have so many dead leaves at the bottom inbetween surviving plants.

[Hoppy]

Tom Barr has recently reported that it is extremely important to remove dead leaves and not let them decay in the aquarium. Decaying leaves generate ammonia, which triggers an algae bloom. So, the advice to not give up on "dead" plants should include trimming off the dead leaves.

[putty]

Bolbitis is the mother of all comeback plants. Must be all that good stuff it keeps in the rhizome.

[m.lemay]

I had completely given up on some HC that I bought 6 months or more ago. I pulled it all out of the substrate and threw some bits in a 10gal shrimp tank. Some had gotten stuck behind the spraybar in my 75g.

All the the HC I threw in the 10g withered and died, but the HC that got caught in the spraybar in the hi-tech 75g started to grow, slowly at first, then after about 3-4 months I had a 3x3 patch of the stuff growing around the spraybar. So I decided to give it another shot and replant it in the substrate. So far it looks like it's gonna make it this time.

I cursed this plant because it frustrated me so much. I'm still not completely confident that it's gonna "take".

Marcel

[Betowess]

Thats good to know Marcel. I'm cursing my Amanos that keep munching on my $20 3x3 inch patch of HC which is now more like a 1.25x1.25 patch. But I know there are some floaters around so if it comes to that, maybe they will be the last best chance. bob