A nice melon

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

In my tank, the diameter is about 8 inches, the height around 4 inches. Under different conditions (more/less light, ferts and CO2) they might "behave" totally different.

I lied. ops:
I was out all week, and now that I look at it, it's more like 13 inches wide, with leaves measuring about 7 inches from the base to the tip.

Had it much smaller in my memory :mrgreen:

[Urkevitz]

I saw the pic and when I went to the LFS they were selling them for $6, The plant I bought looks like mostly emersed growth, and the leaves are green. the new submersed growth is a deep maroon. Do you think I should cut the old growth off so the plant is all red or should I wait?

[Wasserpest]

I would not cut off the leaves unless they start to disintegrate. Even though they are possibly emersed grown, they will help the plant to survive the change in conditions and settle in. When the plant has grown a lot of new leaves and the originals are still there, then you can cut them off safely. Actually, rather than cutting them, once the plant has rooted you can snap them off by pushing them sidewards/downwards right on the base.

[Hygro-Junkie]

Havent had any babies on mine in over two years either

[ginnie5]

wow! that is one beautiful sword. I have a melon sword coming in and I hope it will look half as nice as that one.

[Roy Deki]

beautiful plant...Wasserpest i noticed that you are in Monterey. I was born and raised there.

[Wasserpest]

Thanks for all the compliments. I have actually two specimens of that same variety. Awesome plants. They have an incredible root size. I know that I can't really take this one out, unless I want to see all of them red heater cables (I don't).

Hey Roy, it's a nice area, a lot of things to see and do... Great places for diving if you're into that, although the water is icy.

[SNPiccolo5]

To me that looks a lot like E. "rubin", which is the hybrid between E. osirius and E. barthii, if I remember correctly. The tropica picture seems to match it better too. What does everyone else think?

Nonetheless, it is a beautiful plant! I am getting one for my tank sometime.

-Tim

[Roy Deki]

Wasserpest, My wifes parents own Pepper's mexicali cafe in PG. We still have family there so we get back quite often.

[Urkevitz]

The fish store I bought the melon at also had ruben swords and the ruben's leaves looked longer and thinner.

[Wasserpest]

Echinodorus "Red Rubin" is a monster with 20+ inch leaves, I don't know if this is what you have in mind...


This is an older picture, the Red Rubin on the left has grown more and occupies 1/4 of my 100 gal tank.

[SNPiccolo5]

Now I see. Still though, from pictures I've seen, the leaves look like Rubin, but it is way too small.

Swords grow stunted in my tank, I believe not b/c of lack of nutrients etc... but b/c of hard water. I don't mind, I move them closer to the front and I've had a red rubin before; it never got huge, grew more like you your melon, just a little larger. Learn something everyday.

-Tim

[Wasserpest]

Need to be careful with Swords... They look innocent, and seem to be a great front/center piece, but all of a sudden they get over it and grow to monsters. Sometimes it takes them many months until they reach a certain mass or age or something.

The Sword on the right that you see in the pic above (used to be sort of a middle center piece) suddenly started to grow huge masses of leaves, and I had to yank it out (which wasn't fun, considering the heating cables and loam mixture in my substrate).

[corigan]

This kind of looks like my red rubin sword. Very nice indeed.

Matt