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A while ago, I bought some Bacopa.

When I bought it, it was about 3-4 inches tall, and had leaves the size of my thumbnail.

Now, it's grown to over 8 inches tall, but the new leaves are tiny in comparison - about half the size of my little fingernail.

Lighting shouldn't be a problem, as the light is sufficiently intense to allow me to grow and reproduce Amazon Swordplants, Echinodorus bleheri, which tend to need a reasonable light level if they're going to do this.

Anyone care to speculate what's going on?

Oh, one problem I DID have initially with them was that my Pandas kept digging them up. Don't know if this has any bearing on the situation.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I have a similar situation with my Anachris. I think (pure speculation) that the plant is trying to get more leaves to take in more light to provide for extremely fast growth. Thats just my guess hope it helps.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

It's stunting. Lack of nutrients, macros in particular. More then likely short of Nitrate.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

When my plants are growing really well they tend to have larger leaves and fewer between. Probably because they are growing so fast up that the leaves can't keep up.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

OK, here's a little conundrum.

Bensaf, you say it's possibly low nitrates that are causing this. Trouble is, one of the fundamental goals of good fishkeeping is to keep nitrates down to an acceptable level! An issue that is particularly important with my Panda Corys because if nitrate levels climb too high, they start to become stressed ... consequently I aim for a figure around 10ppm, which seems to work fine for my Amazon Swordplants and the rest of the underwater rainforest I have in there ... in fact, my Amazon Swordplants are throwing off baby plantlets at a rate of knots at the moment, which suggests to me that nitrate levels must be OK for them, especially as the parent plants are now lush and verdant!

As for my Java Ferns and Java Moss, well I have to prune those ruthlessly on a regular basis ... the Java Ferns would launch a campaign for world domination if I didn't!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

10ppm is low for plants. Sword will cuck it out quickly possibly out competing the Bacopa.

It's not a light issue.

Low nutrients/Co2 will produce small leaves.

Pandas , Discus and all other fish do well in planted tanks where Nitrate, phosphorous and Co2 are added regularly.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

OK, here's a little conundrum.

This is a perfect example of why you can't be all things to all plants and fish in one tank.

As you gain experience with certain plants and fish you need to make decisions what will work and what won't. This is sometimes easier said then none.

I don't have Pandas, but I have 2 corys and about 8 otos and they show no stress to no3 levels that are probably in the 20s. As Bensaf said many people had this chemicals in pretty healthly quantities to their tanks with these fish in them. I'm not suggesting you do that, but if you decide to, do it on a very gradual basis.


My Scapes