My large amazon sword, which takes up about 1/2 my 55 gal tank has put
up what appears to be a flower staulk. there are small things that
look like small leaves at a "joint" at the water line. Then the stem
goes on up thru the air til it hits the glass. There seems to be a
flower or something which is pretty shriveled and burned/bronish -
from the light (CF).

Any suggestions for ensuring I get new sword plants? I think I had
heard once about gently bending the shoot under water. But this shoot
is very solid & rigit. It would appear to break if I tried to bend it
much at all.

Bob

What kind of sword plant do you have? The stalk can be quite stiff but,
from my experience, I have been able to submerge the stalk. I do have a
glass cover on top of the tank to help me but I find that it moves by the
base.


"Bob Alston" wrote in message
m...
My large amazon sword, which takes up about 1/2 my 55 gal tank has put
up what appears to be a flower staulk. there are small things that
look like small leaves at a "joint" at the water line. Then the stem
goes on up thru the air til it hits the glass. There seems to be a
flower or something which is pretty shriveled and burned/bronish -
from the light (CF).

Any suggestions for ensuring I get new sword plants? I think I had
heard once about gently bending the shoot under water. But this shoot
is very solid & rigit. It would appear to break if I tried to bend it
much at all.

Bob

My sword is a plain old E. amazonicus.

Bob

Bob Alston wrote:

My large amazon sword, which takes up about 1/2 my 55 gal tank has put
up what appears to be a flower staulk. snip

Any suggestions for ensuring I get new sword plants? I think I had
heard once about gently bending the shoot under water. But this shoot
is very solid & rigit. It would appear to break if I tried to bend it
much at all.

I have done it two ways-bending down the stalk to bury it in the
substrate, and just waiting for the roots of the plantlets to grow on
their own on the stalk. Although you get more roots faster by bending down
the stalk, this usually doesn't work in my tank. The stalks can grow 40"
(1 meter) or longer, perhaps due to the depth of my tank (24 inches/60cm).
So I just leave the stalk alone and cut off the plants when they get 5 or
more leaves plus roots.

Dave Millman wrote:

I have done it two ways-bending down the stalk to bury it in the
substrate, and just waiting for the roots of the plantlets to grow on
their own on the stalk.

To clarify my previous post, the second method is to just allow the plantlets
to sprout roots on the stalk WITHOUT embedding it in the substrate-just leave
the stalk connected to the mother plant and extending up to the surface.

Update: The leaves at the joint, right at the water line, have turned
into new staulks. so there are three growing from the joint into the
air. Haven't really seen a bloom/flower yet but it is exciting.

Been trying to figure out what triggered it. Best I can tell it was
massive water changes in my 55 gal when trying to deal with fish
disease and what ultimately turned out to be a polluted tank ('cause
the canister filter got way too dirty).

Bob