Re: Turnover rate of leaves on Tiger Lotus

["Rachel Sandage" <rachelsor at hotmail_com>]

Dave M's late reply to Kirk about the leaves on his tiger lotus reminded me 
that I meant to reply to. The problem is that otherwise healthy leaves rot 
from base of the plant.

I had this problem also, and it was really frustrating. At the time the GH 
of my water was around 1. I started adding Seachem's Equilibrium to bring it 
up to around 4, and this has stopped hapening. Right now I am solving the 
problem of it getting too big in two ways: first, by cutting off older 
leaves, since they were getting covered with BBA (a problem which is almost 
gone), and second, by changing my mind every month or so about where I want 
the plant to be, and uprooting it.

HTH,

-rs


Date: Mon, 09 Jun 2003 15:40:51 -0700
From: Dave Millman <dave at tactics_com>
Subject: Re: Turnover rate of leaves on Tiger Lotus

At 03:51 AM 6/4/2003, Kirk wrote:

> I have a Red Tiger Lotus which is apparently growing well in my 75 gallon
> tank.  The only thing that concerns me is how frequently what appear to be
> very healthy, large bright red leaves fall off the plant.  It seems like
> every few days, one of these beautiful leaves starts to loosen up via its
> stem dissolving off near the base.  A smaller leaf is sure to replace it,
> as these are usually just starting to come out the crown of the plant as
> the stems first start to dissolve, and by the time the plant loses one of
> them, it is replaced.  Is this normal for this plant, or, are fish speeding
> the process along by eating the plant (no apparent bitemarks in the
> leaves).  Thanks!

Sorry for the late reply.

It sounds like the plant is fairly new (less than 1-2 months) in your tank.
If you are getting new growth from this plant, and the majority of the
existing leaves are healthy, then the biggest problem you are going to face
is keeping it small enough for your tank.

If your total leaf count starts declining, suspect a missing nutrient. I
have heard of any fish that are typically kept in a plant tank that eat
this one.

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