Pointy-head Rotalas (& some uncontainable happiness)...

[Naomi Mizumoto <naomizu at pacbell_net>]

Hi, All!

I presently own three species of Rotala: R. indica, R. macranda 
'small-leaf', and R. sp. 'nanjenshan'. I'm having the same problem with all 
of these: they suddenly grow teeny leaves, then cease to grow altogether, 
ending in a pointy tip, then branch off from some odd node below (I've had 
the nanjenshan long enough only to see the diminishing leaf size). 
Basically, I'm not killing them outright - just causing them to do strange 
things. The macranda and nanjenshan are getting a bit over 3 wpg of normal 
fluorescent lighting. The indica is only getting about 2.5 wpg, but I've 
had it grow nicely under the same conditions; they are cuttings from the 
original stems I bought nearly three years ago. The macranda and nanjenshan 
are very recent purchases. In the month or so that I've had the macranda, 
I've discovered that they grow better NOT from top cuttings, but from 
branching of the "stump." Even so, they still do the sudden pointy thing. 
In some abstract way, I feel as though they're giving me the finger because 
I'm not providing adequately. Admittedly, I haven't been dosing traces 
except for Flourish Iron. I do add KNO3, K2SO4, and MgSO4 daily, but pretty 
minute amounts. I may be reaching, here, but could this be calcium 
deficiency? The GH is usually around 2 dH out of the tap and the small 
amount of crushed coral I keep in the tanks seems to raise it by one degree 
*very* slowly. Is this particular behavior associated with any specific 
deficiency or am I going to have to go about this by trial-and-error? It's 
really pretty bizarre... I'd appreciate any help I can get in correcting this.

On a completely different side note: I got it! I got it!!! My LFS is 
finally selling Anubias 'petite' and I bought one, today!!! It's so cute 
and delicate-looking. I'm sure it'll be perfect in one of my teeny-tiny 
2.5-gallon planted tanks. For what I paid, I hope I don't kill it :-o

-Naomi