[APD] Is bigger better for C blassii or A madagascariensis

["Steve Pushak" <teban at powersonic_bc.ca>]

Roger Miller wrote:
> I may have never come across a better
> example where bigger is *not* better.

Roger, welcome to the discussion. At last, a new viewpoint!

Frankly, if you don't want to display a plant to its greatest advantage,
there's not much point incorporating it within an aquascape. While the upper
surface of C blassii has an interesting texture
<http://home.infinet.net/teban/bigcrypt.jpg>, this texture is only apparent
when the leaves reach a large size. In my opinion, the best feature of this
plant is the coloration of the undersides.
<http://home.infinet.net/teban/Oct97/ap10.jpg>

> What are you supposed to do with a 28" C. blassii?

Use it in a large aquarium as the predominant feature; isn't that obvious?
Take a look at the series of images on
<http://home.infinet.net/teban/Oct97/oct97.html>. I grant you that its not
suitable for tanks shorter than 24" in depth.

Let me reverse the question: How would Takashi Amano display this plant? I
submit he would use it as bold strokes of color, part of the central theme
of his composition!

> or various large Echinodorus and Aponogetons
> that get huge when grown
> in a rich substrate.

If you want to showcase an Aponogeton lace plant, I think it needs to be
displayed at close to its natural size. A 2 ft cube tank would be a good
size to work with this plant. I haven't seen any really great lace plant
pictures on the web. See
<http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=lace-plant&btn
G=Google+Search> &
<http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Aponogeton+mad
agascariensis&btnG=Google+Search>

I'd like to see what Mr Amano would do with this plant.

> If a big plant is what you want then why
> would you ever grow it in an aquarium?

There are some big plants which have no redeeming features and are therefore
unsuitable, in my opinion. Conversely, a big plant must have very striking
features if I'm going to bother to work with it.

I think Charlie Bay is going to want some really big plants for his monster
tank, if he ever gets it built. E cordifolius is a plant that needs a pond
to look good; perhaps it might work in Charlie's pet lake. Charlie, why
don't you simply build a floating home complete with glass bottom? Or build
a viewing chamber into a river and work with that?

> I like the idea that by avoiding deep,
> fertile substrates I can grow C. blassii
> et al in good health and keep them at a
> reasonable size.

If you think that it looks better when kept dwarfed, then I can't argue with
you; to each according to his own taste. We can agree that the plant gets
big given a decent substrate. If anyone has nice pictures of C blassii, let
me know. There are precious few found by Google.

Steve P

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