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Hi guys! Long time no post, but i'm back! so are my poor tanks who have been neglected all these months. but starting all over again.

I just got this "new" plant from tropica, it's says is quite a easy plant to grow and will form a nice carpet. It IS a beautiful plant! but i planted it on my tank and it's not doing that great, in fact i think it's dieing.

Do any of you have any expirience withthis plant?

here is a photo of the tank and some close ups of the plant

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Welcome back!

Your tank is beautiful. The fish and plants look really healthy.

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Cake or death?

Thanks bananacoladafuze Still working around a BBA problem as you can se, that infested even the gravel, but so far new and old prune plants are doing great, it's like watching the whole tank being reborn.

As for the Pogostemon.... it's being eaten! not dieing blame it on the bristle nose pleco or any of the plecos for that matter, so I guess I'll just have to look for an alternative plant, any suggestions?

What size tank is it and how much light do you have? I can't suggest anything without that info. Your tank is really nice though. The plants look really healthy.

*Kristin*

Hi Falstaf! Welcome back!

P. Helferi is a lovely plant, a little interesting species. A common name for it is downoi, which i think means "little star"

I don't think it's especially hard to take care of, with specific requirements, so I'd suggest doing wha tyou'd normally do for plants: keep CO2 up, make sure there's plenty of N, K and P to go around, and provide traces and micros.

If looking for an alternative, plecos and loaches make it tough, as you know. They make it hard to keep certain plants rooted.

Check out Blyxa japonica as an alternative. It's a stem plant that will usually stay low. It looks like blades of grass. It tends to be bouyant, but once it roots it stays down very well.

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Back in the saddle!

Thanks NowherMan6

I'll try to look for the specie you mention, it's true that botias and plecos make it harder but i really love them all, so i'll give it a try, in the meanwhile i saved some of the half eaten stems, and planted them on the betta tanks, i hope they do it there. I really loved the plant.

GirlieGirl8519:

It's a 50G tank, 2 40W Azoo Super light full spectrum strips, CO2 injection. Thanks for the compliments on the tank and plants, they are growing so fast now, i hope i can bring tank back to it's old glory.

I do not have aquascaping down to a science like many of these folks, but from my experience with the plant, downoi is as easy as any to care for. They do tend to melt away given minimal micros, and stems can look fairly ragged and just downright ugly given inconsistent nutrient consumption. Other than that, they should be easy to maintain.

Hey falstaf, welcome back. The tank is lookin' pretty nice there. I tried to use that website you had up with plant profiles awhile back, but it wasn't up....is it up again? I'd check I guess, but I'm not home.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Welcome back Falstaff

Downoi has been around for a couple years or more now.
Tropica lied !

It's similar to a crypt in that they can be an easy plant
but can melt for much of the same reasons.

It's a VERY nice plant to get, good luck with it


The Amazon Nut...

Hi Matty, thanks, its growing fine, and really quick, it's almost shamefull for it to be like that, but good thing is that it's getting back on track, hopefully in a couple of months it will be looking as it should.

The plant profiles where hosted in another site, and when it closed they where deleted, i still have all the profiles if you want then, I was thinking of makeing then here at FP again, they are so many! The only problem should be that not all the photos are originals, and i only wish i had all those plants, but maybe we all here can help with the photos, and do a great plant profile archive.

DaMossMan, I was thinking about the resemblance of Dawnoi, to crypts the other night, i had to move them to another tank, they where badlly eaten on the big one, now they are not looking that nice i hope they kick back soon, since i do really like them. It's not the first time tropica lies! LOL

Thanks for the welcomes!

Here is the betta tank where they are now


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I used to go by DaFishMan in here, are you still keeping angelfish ? I was off the site for a bit too. Not posting much these days.

I'm wondering if the Downoi did a random melt (heard they do that), then it got nibbled on in it's weakened state. Judging by the good health and color (good job !) of your other plants I don't think anything is lacking.
Like a crypt, let it be and give it time to recover
I'd like to hear how it goes.



The Amazon Nut...

Hey! yes I remember now! How have you been? Same here being away for a long time.

Yes I still have them, recently the female angel died, hole in head disease, real tragedy because the male is all alone again and won't accept another angel in the tank, he has killed 2 females already, so I'm in the look for a full grown one now, but still I keep 2 pairs of their offspring, which are growing really fast and healthy.

That's a good theory, maybe they melted and I got all paranoid, I'll let them recover in the betta tank, and then give it one more try, I'll never had a crypt melt down yet, after all the time left uncared, they just stop growing and where attacked by BBA, I'm trying to return them to health now, but they are slow, at least mine.

I've been ok thanks

My tanks have been negelected for about 8 months. I lost my pair of silver angels. I'm sorry to hear you lost your female too Lucky you have some offspring

Maybe removing the male from the tank, change the territories a bit, put the new female in and get established, then putting the male back may help so that defending territory is not the first instinct that comes to it's mind. Angels mate for life but will take other mates if they lose theirs, so there is hope.

Downoi is similar too but more sensitive then crypts, and random melts aren't uncommon. I was after downoi at one point so researched heavily on the plant. Both are very slow at recovering but they will in your healthy tank

My 40g is a messy jungle right now but I'll post up a few pics tomorrow so you can take a peak. I'll probably be restocking with longfin albino bn plecos and maybe german blue rams once the ick has been gone for a month or so.
My 10 is emptied and will be redone too, prolly wood and moss. Not sure on the fish yet.

Nice talking to you again
Da


The Amazon Nut...