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Just curious... I got these dwarf lily bulbs from Walmart, I think it was. There were five bulbs. One never sprouted, but the rest did. I wound up giving one to my sister for her tank, and had the other three in my 20 gallon.

Of the three, one did fairly well, but the other two were tiny and didn't do much. I took out the smallest one and dropped it in my 12 gallon for kicks and giggles. It was a new tank (onyx sand substrate) and to my surprise, this lily has done outstanding in this tank! It's now larger than the biggest one in my twenty gallon. I've also noticed that those remaing two have gotten bigger since the removal of the third one.

Ookay... so today I took out the smaller one and dropped it into my ten gallon. Can't hurt to try, right?

The lighting is better in the 20 gallon. There are ferts in the 20 gallon. The 12 gallon is brand new. Why did the bulb do so much better in the 12 gallon? Is it possible that the plants were outcompeting each other? But other plants grow fine in the twenty... it's so weird.

Oh... the lily in my 12 gallon? It's shooting up it's first lily pad. *beams brightly*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Kitten,

My experience with nymphea bulbs is that they inconsistently sprout. I have waited over three months for one to shoot up the first leaf while others seem to do so over night.

By the way, it you want to encourage the underwater leaf display, keep snipping off the leaves and stems that lead to the surface.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Nah... I like lily pads. My banana plant used to send up beautiful lilies that my betta girls loved to curl up in. I thought it was the cutest thing.

I was just curious as to whether or not the presence of multiple bulbs in my aquarium was stunting them. It was just odd how once I moved the smallest one to another aquarium, it immediately took off. I've now got one in each tank, so I'm curious to see if the remaining ones do better now that they've been separated.

The one in the 12 gallon tank is a beautiful red/green/brown while the other ones are pale pink. It's almost like they're completely different plants, though the reddish brown one was pink before, too. It's just cool to see the differences.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Only a few of my walmart lily bulbs have actually grown. It also took alot of light to get them to really grow. In 2wpg they lived with a few leaves but didn't do much. In 4wpg and co2 even the red one has many leaves and I have about 5 lilly pads. I only managed to grow 4 out of 10bulbs and they were very slow untill I got them in more light.

That's the amusing part... the 20 gallon has more light (and since it's a long tank, the light is closer to the plant) than the 12 gallon which is taller. The 20 gallon is an established tank with a gravel substrate full of mulm and fertilizers, while the 12 is newly cycled and has sand. I dunno... it's just weird all over.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~