Plant ID

[mercur1al]

Any idea what plant this is?

I doubt it is a true aquatic plant... but bought it anyway to try. Can't find it online anywhere... stem is quite solid, leaves are hard and waxy as well, which is why i doubt it is a true aquatic plant.

Attachment 45228

[Urban Aquaria]

Those are crotons... a very common house plant (there are many variations). They have lots of color, but are unfortunately non-aquatic.

Not sure why LFS like to put such non-aquatic plants on sale, i guess the color is attractive and the plants probably can last for a while underwater before rotting.

Note that if you puncture the leaves they'll tend to leak a sap which can irritate skin.

If you remove it from your tank, don't throw it away, you can plant it in a pot of soil (can also be planted in LECA/hydroton and maintained via hydroculture too) and it can continue growing as a nice house plant.

[mercur1al]

Guess my search for a plant to fill up that gap continues then

Thanks UA!!

[bennyc]

most LFS are running with the old mindset. "selling only fish" Nowadays, LFS sell a variety of things that are relating to aquariums. Planted tank to them are a relatively new concept and most are just adopting a sell only, whatever the distributors are providing them. colorful plants are the best seller and newbie always go for the most colorful and attention grabbing items.

While the lack of knowledge cause them to put aquatic and non aquatic plants together. We cannot fault them as it is not totally wrong to sell non "submergeble" plants as LFS do cater to the vivariums and paludarium folks.

Just like mahjong, we have to "pay some school fees" to "learn" new things

[mercur1al]

most LFS are running with the old mindset. "selling only fish" Nowadays, LFS sell a variety of things that are relating to aquariums. Planted tank to them are a relatively new concept and most are just adopting a sell only, whatever the distributors are providing them. colorful plants are the best seller and newbie always go for the most colorful and attention grabbing items.

While the lack of knowledge cause them to put aquatic and non aquatic plants together. We cannot fault them as it is not totally wrong to sell non "submergeble" plants as LFS do cater to the vivariums and paludarium folks.

Just like mahjong, we have to "pay some school fees" to "learn" new things

Absolutely spot on dude. Newbies like me pay to learn new things. Its getting better though, before i bought it, i already thought it wasn't an aquatic plant, but couldn't find any information on it, so decided to go ahead first.

Really hard to find a nice plant for that gap in my tank.

[mercur1al]

Day 19.

Attachment 45279

Dumped the crotons the same night UA told me they were not aquatic plants. Didn't feel good with it in the tank once UA told me the leaves, when punctured can release a skin irritating sap. Didn't want them to release their sap in the water.

Walked past a LFS yesterday and hence decided to take a look. Surprisingly they had the Rotala Macrandra. Only downside was they only had one small pot with 4 stalks, and they were grown emmersed. Bought it and now hoping these 4 stalks can survive and probably grow tall enough for me to propogate and create a denser look.

One thing i realised though: I am never going with a black oyama back again. I decided to go with a black back mainly to hide the canister filter which is sitting behind the tank. On hindsight, it makes the tank "look dirty". No matter how pristine I keep my water, there always seems to be tiny white suspended particules in the water, and the black back makes things much worse. Compared to my 1 foot tank with less water changes, this tank with a black back looks terrible. A white oyama sticker might have looked better and also give the perception of more space and a bigger tank.

[mercur1al]

Trimmed the plants sometime last week.

The Rotala Wallichii, Limnophila Sessiliflora and Cabomba Caroliniana were overgrowing the tank. Grew to the top of the tank, and basically started spreading out and blocked light for the other plants. Just did a basic trimming, where i snipped off approximately half to three quarters of the main stem and dumped the cuttings.

The plant seemed to stop growing for a few days after my initial cutting. Subsequently, new shoots started appearing from the side of the plant, or side of where the plant was cut. Refer to the uploaded picture, the portion circled in red and marked A was the initial stem which i cut short. B, circled in white is a new growth. A doesn't seem to be growing further, all of the growth is now concentrated on B, the new shoot. The stem of the new shoot is much thinner than the original plant, probably about 1/3 the diameter.

Some of the leaves belonging to the old stem seemed to have turned brown as well, while the leaves on the new stem are extremely green.

I intend to do the following, no idea if it is right though. Wait for the new stems to grow much taller, cut them from the main plant and replant the cuttings. Maybe dump the old stem.

Attachment 45280

[Urban Aquaria]

The plant seemed to stop growing for a few days after my initial cutting. Subsequently, new shoots started appearing from the side of the plant, or side of where the plant was cut. Refer to the uploaded picture, the portion circled in red and marked A was the initial stem which i cut short. B, circled in white is a new growth. A doesn't seem to be growing further, all of the growth is now concentrated on B, the new shoot. The stem of the new shoot is much thinner than the original plant, probably about 1/3 the diameter.

Some of the leaves belonging to the old stem seemed to have turned brown as well, while the leaves on the new stem are extremely green.

I intend to do the following, no idea if it is right though. Wait for the new stems to grow much taller, cut them from the main plant and replant the cuttings. Maybe dump the old stem.

Attachment 45280

Yes, that is the characteristic of most stem plants when you prune them, each stem that is cut will grow 2 or more new stems from the last cut node. This is how stem plants are pruned regularly to eventually create a dense bush or hedge, the more its trimmed as it grows, the more stems multiply... ie. 1 stem > 2 stems > 4 stems > 8 stems > 16 stems and so on. Usually you'd trim them every 2-3 nodes to make the stems branch out more densely.

Here is a diagram of the pruning technique:



Diagram from google images.

So its possible with regular pruning for just 10 stems at the start to eventually multiply to 160 or more stems at the top (after just 4 regulated trims), hence creating a nice dense background in aquascapes.

The excess stem bits of the cut nodes will naturally brown and melt away as its no longer being sustained by the plants, so its best to just cut them as close as possible to the last leaf node for neatness.

The older growth at the lower parts of the stems plants will also deteriorate over time, so if you notice that the bottom parts are melting or browning, then its time to trim the healthy tops and replant.

[Greentank]

Those are crotons... a very common house plant (there are many variations). They have lots of color, but are unfortunately non-aquatic.

Not sure why LFS like to put such non-aquatic plants on sale, i guess the color is attractive and the plants probably can last for a while underwater before rotting.

Note that if you puncture the leaves they'll tend to leak a sap which can irritate skin.

If you remove it from your tank, don't throw it away, you can plant it in a pot of soil (can also be planted in LECA/hydroton and maintained via hydroculture too) and it can continue growing as a nice house plant.

It was in my mind to ask AQ on this as well .

Croton is always available on DW and kept on the floor in seaview, just curious who is buying this and purpose?

I also saw fittonia in some of the LFS, one of the LFS guy said, it is trained to grow under water. and I had kept it for few months before it died (It did not really rot, but I did not see any growth either)

[limz_777]

this croton is new addition , never seen it before , could have fool many with that large and colourful leaves

[Urban Aquaria]

this croton is new addition , never seen it before , could have fool many with that large and colourful leaves

Its quite common at the popular LFS like C328, Polyart and Seaview... usually sold slotted into pieces of drilled driftwood.

I actually bought them before to grow as an outdoor potted plant, somehow it worked out cheaper than buying from gardening/plant nurseries.