new plants

[duck]

Hey Guys and Gals... I just got back from my LFS... I am happy.. I was looking for some reddish color plants to add to my tank and found some neat ones.. some sort of water lilly. It's a reddish color and has long shrp knife or devil horn shaped leaves... its from a big golf ball shaped bulb.. never seen anything like it before.. anyways.. I got a bannana plant and some others and asked why a "water palm" had died. The lady seemed really helpful (shes young and didn't seem to be trying to sell something rather then just to talk to me) I asked her if the plant was a water plant meaning it lived all the time underwater.. she told me that they sell them and often have them in a large tank for months before they sell all of them. ( they literaly had a hundred of these plants) I had read somewhere that this was probly bamboo or something and I specificaly asked and she told me no.. it is called water palm.... So I describbed what mine was doing.. turning brown in some areas and having black dots here and there no it.. and she told me it could be dying.... and asked what I feed it.... welp... I replied.. Nadda and she told me this was the problem...and for 3 bucks I had 6 months supply of fish plant food ni the form of weekly fizzle tabs for plants that creats co2 and adds fert. Has anyone tried this or used these? Do they work? (it is made by jungle) Anyways.... we got to talking and she said the brown was from it starting to die in some places but the black was actualy my tiger barbs nipping the plant most likely. I have several plants.. the water palm is the only ones seeming to be affected.

[djlen]

I'd like to see a picture of the 'water palm'. I've never heard of them before and suspect it's not a plant that should be in an aquarium, but rather a terrarium. If you can take a picture it would be very helpful.

Len

[jeffro426]

As for plant food, im not sure about those fizzy tablets...you might want to try out C02 injection, either DIY or pressurized. I have a DIY setup on my 55 gallon and my plants are gwoing like weeds! I use 2 40 watt GE aquarays, and the DIY setup and have java fern and moss, anarchis and pothos in my tank. The JAva fern grows well, as long as my mbuna arent eating it...the moss is doing great and has doubled its size(about a cup or so) in a couple weeks. The anarchis is out of control though, it probably grows 1/2 to 1 inch per day...i have to trim it every weekend. The pothos really doesnt do much from what ive noticed, but i have had 2 new leaves start to spout this week. What kinda tank and lighting do you have?? When i first got my 55 i only had 40 watts of light and i couldnt grow crap, it would live, just wouldnt grow...but now everything seems to be really flourishing and im quite happy with my results so far.

[Mark_b]

I had something a couple of months ago called a 'water palm'. Mine died though aswell, it didnt change for a month and slowly went brown. I left it in to see if it recovered but to no avail.
I only ever saw them for sale once and i too suspected that they may not be a true aqautic plant.
If you manage to keep one alive let me know because i thought it looked pretty cool!