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Hi,

I bugged my "plant guy" from the fish market here to get me red tiger lotus, since they are nearly impossible to get here (they are forbidden fro ecological reasons), well he did got 2 for me.

They've been in my tanks for about a month now, and they haven't grown an inch!!! not normal behavior for a lotus IME. the bulb is tiny and they still have the leaves which they come with in good condition, but not new growth.

The tanks are well fertilized, CO2, and really high light one 3 wpg the second one 4.5 wpg and it's shallow.

Any idea why they aren't growing, or if they need something special?

Falstaff,

I have a Red Tiger Lotus which started as 3 tiny one inch leaves. It is now almost 2 foot tall with leaves that are 6 inches across. It hasn't quite pierced the surface and I'll trim if it does - once they find the surface they go out of control.

BUT it took a good 6 months to get there. In my experience it starts very slowly and then boom goes nuts. It really only took off about a month ago throwing out really big leaves in the past month. It took about five months to get 6 inches tall but only another month to get from 6 inches to 2 foot
In fact I had to uproot it and move it to the back it had gotten so big.

They are under just over 2 wpg with Co2 but I've never done anything special for them. I have heard they don't like too much light. Mine was certainly shaded for quite some time with little bad effects.

I'd say just give it a bit longer and let it do it's thing. When it gets going it will go big time, if fact in a few months it may eventually outgrow the tank.

I have a series of photographs showing it's growth over the past few months.I checked back and yep the bugger was only about 5-6 inches tall 5 weeks ago (after been there for 5 months !).


Last edited by bensaf at 11-Feb-2005 07:41

Last edited by bensaf at 11-Feb-2005 07:43

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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.

im am by far the last person you wanna take advise on by plants but i have looked into tiger lotus some because i want some in my tank. i think you should look this info up and double check it but this gives you some idea what your looking for.

ive heard that tiger lotus will grow depending on the light sorce. the more light you have the less it needs to grow up towards the light especielly if its getting all it needs.
not the previous post mentions how his was shaded for some time and that his shot up really fast. so going by that i think it may be true but i would research it

its a heavy root feeder, you need a reall good substrate. i had one in my 150 gallon planted tank, i made the mistake of letting it hit the surface. it then proceeded to grow out of control bloacking out light and killing off alot of camboda it was huge, covering a 1/4 of my tank probably more if i didnt cut it back every now and then. i then gave up and killed the plant.

i've found with my experience with this plant it grows faster under lower light conditions. In the tank i have it in (currently being grown as a bonsai since its in a 5gal), when i had 1.5wpg it grew faster and hit the surface alot more than now (3wpg).

In an old tank i had one experience a 'melt' went down to the bulb, and once i transferred it to a tank with very little light (killifish) it started to grow again.

I have one in my 125G with 3 wpg. It taks up to 3 months for the bulb to overcome dormancy. I have had my best luck when I completely bury the bulb. When the tiny leaves progress to larger leaves the bulb is establishing its root system. Once the root system is established the immersed leaves grow larger, up to 6 inches in length. Emmersed leaves follow shortly thereafter. I have had stems grow to the surface in as little as 2 days (20" in my tank.

If you trim the emergent stem as they appear, the plant will continue to cultivate immersed leaves.

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

Ok that's really intresting, thank you everyone for the reply. All the info i ever knew about this lotus is that it was a high light plant, and i didn't questioned it because of the really red leaves i just asumed it was.

I guess i will move them to a not so bright tank and wait to see what happens, both of them look good and good health leaves, it was just strange for me having expirience with other lillies that actually run wild after they've establish and it's hart to keep up with them, that this two didn't even showed a sign of growth whatsoever.

I'll change them and wait and see what happens.

i have the green and the red tiger lotus in my tank, falstaf, and i have to agree with all the other posts - they take an age to start up, then grow really well - two of mine are just sending their first medium sized leaves, after 3 months in the tank while two others over a year old are big bold feature plants. they don't like having their rootstock disturbed, so you may have set them back a little by moving them. but they are gorgeous, aren't they?

Last edited by jase101 at 22-Feb-2005 02:19

They sure are!!

One of mine already started growing some leaves, the other one has me concerned, almost not growth but tiny leaves that won't grow and they are so close to the bulb (which is tiny) that i can't really burry it into the substrate without covering them, i'm worried this one is not going to make it.

falstaf - not to worry if the leaves die off on the smaller one. they'll come back.

I had one plant that completely died down to pretty much the bulb, I transplanted it into another tank with less light, and it came back up again.

Do any of you have a pic of this plant??


Thanks
Angel Eel

Here's a recent pic of mine.It's the one at the back with the big round dark red leaves

It started about 6 months ago as a tiny little thing right at the front of the tank. Stayed this way for quite a while then did some serious growing.

As you can see it's right at the back, in probably the darkest part of the tank.Even there it sends out huge 6 inch wide leaves about twice a week, I usually trim off the oldest and biggest leaves every week or two. It's about 2 foot tall now.

bensaf attached this image:

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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.

Nice plants,
Look well taken care of
Thanks for showing me i'm just starting to read up on plants....alot of stuff lol

Thanks again
Angel Eel