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Re: Sword Plant Mystery
On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, Hanna Weiss wrote:
> I'm pretty new to the planted aquarium concept, and I do not know much
> about certain plants. My Amazon Sword is not growing! I got it about
> six months ago, and it had the normal broad leaves. At that time, I had
> only 24 watts going into my 45 gallon tank. After 3 months, the normal
> leaves eventually decayed, and new, narrow leaves grew in. After 4
> months, i gott a new light, and added 60 watts to the oridginal 24. But,
> the leaves are still growing in narrow! I have no CO2 system, and I
> fertilize the tank once a week. Any help is appriciated.
What you see is the normal adaptation of the plant from growing above
water to growing below water. Lots of people are confused by this. Most
sword plants have oval leaves when grown emersed. Commercial growers
usually grow them emersed, so when you find them at your local fish store
they generally have oval, emersed-style leaves. The small and medium
sized species usually have narrower, pointed submersed leaves.
If the leaves stayed oval it wouldn't make much sense to call them "sword"
plants.
Roger Miller