Is my plant dying? ...and other newb questions

Twelve

Twelve

Ty, the blacklight betta
Sep 30, 2004
53
0
0
California
I am posting this here instead of in the newbie forum because the questions pertain to plants specifically. :D

I am currently cycling my 10g tank. I am on the ammonia falling, nitrite rising phase. I got a few plants when I got the tank (and knew nothing of cycling) and they have been growing fine (well... most of them) since I put them in. They are getting somewhere between 2.0 and 2.5 watts per gallon. My pH is 7.1.

I have a couple questions that I hope that plant-smart folks can help me with. When I got the plants, I didn't think to ask the names, so forgive me for my ignorance! :)

1. I have a plant with pointy, spade-shaped leaves that appears to have grown from a large bulb-like thing. It's got a lot of roots and is still connected to the bulb. I planted it into my gravel and it seems like it never really was happy. A few of the leaves have turned a yellowish-green, and are now getting holes in the them. A couple leaves started to disintigrate so I have pulled those ones out of the tank. My question about this plant is: is it dying? Should I just give up on it and take it out of the tank so it doesn't pollute the water?

2. Today on a website I managed to identify my other plants as anacharis. I got a few bunches of these and they seem to be doing great, growing a lot and really green. My questions about these plants are: Are they supposed to grow all these roots out of their stems (top to bottom, they are growing lots of em). Also, do these have to be stuck in the gravel, or can I let them float? They were floating when I got them, but the Petco employee said they should be planted. The way the roots are growing, it seems like it wouldn't matter.

3. I have african frogs in my tank that like cover, so I was going to go this weekend and get some plants that hopefully will one day grow enough to cover the surface of the water and provide enough shade so they will come out of their cave! Can anyone offer suggestions of good floating plants? I like the look of Duckweed and Brazilian Pennywort, how would these do in my tank? I also like Amazon Frogbit and Indian Fern, but I might not have enough light for these plants.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and help! :D
 
Anachris (egeria densa) can be floated or planted. It grows so quickly that, even if planted, it will float across the surface at the tips anyway, unless you are diligant about pruning them.

Yes, it is common for them to grow roots out all the way up and down. If you don't like how they look, you may cut them off.

As far as your african frogs...are they dwarf frogs or clawed frogs? I wouldn't expect the frogs to come out just because of surface plants though...they like to hide anyway. IME plant cover at the surface doesn't affect them much. Plus, if you are trying to grow other plants, surface plants will block much of the light from coming in unless you keep them confined to one area. (Keep in mind that the frogs must have access to open water to breathe and that a lot of surface plants may make that difficult.)

In terms of what makes a good floating plant...duckweed is good and small....but it's growth can be explosive. "Brazilian Pennywort" which is Hydrocotyle leucocephela is good and can also be planted in the substrate and allowed to cascade over the surface. It's a rather pretty plant.

I don't think Indian fern is a floating plant...and unless you mean bolbitus sp., Im not sure it's even a true aquatic plant (this is why common names are such a problem sometimes LOL).

Hard to say what the plant you first described is. Is it an actual bulb or does it look like a thick root? It could be an anubias sp., aponogenton sp., nymphaea sp., etc.
 
I got the plant names and info from this site:

Plant Geek

The dying(?) plant is definitely a bulb. The bulb part is about 1 and a half inches and brown. The plant grew out of it.

I believe my frogs are dwarf frogs. They are pretty small. The reason I wanted to get some floating plants is because when I left the anacharis floating, they hung all over it. After I was told to plant them, the frogs stayed hidden because there was so much more light in the tank and no plants to hang onto on top of the water. Hanging onto the plants is also really convenient for them -- they can place themselves right at the water level and breathe without going anywhere :)

So I guess the best plants would be something that the frogs could hang onto and hide in.
 
You need to know for sure what frogs you have. African Clawed frogs start out small too. Here's a link to an article I wrote that should clear up any confusion:

Clickety Clickety

Plants at the surface and plants near the surface are two different things. By all means though ,some frogs will rest on leaves near the surface...though they really shouldnt' be doing this all the time. Even with more than sufficient cover in a heavily planted tank, mine aren't out terribly often.

If you want a plant that you think will allow frogs to hang out in and on, hydrocotyle (pennywort) is your best bet, IMO.
 
Thanks for all the info!

I took a look at my frogs and their front feet are not webbed, making them clawed frogs. They are Growafrogs, I have had them since they were tadpoles :) I actually bought them along with a tank from the Growafrog people, but I didn't like how small it was (it held only about 2.5 gallons, which they said was fine for 3 frogs), so I upgraded them to this new 10g.

These frogs love to sit in the plants. That's where they are at all the time, preferring the plants to the PVC pipe I added for cover.

I am going to the store tomorrow and will try to get some pennywort! Thanks for the suggestion.

Also, can anyone tell me about my other plant? Is it dying or should I give it a chance?
 
Yay! :D

The frogs love the plants. They come out so much more than they used to.

I got some more anacharis to help with the top cover, and what I believe is duckweed (lots of tiny little leaves that float). I also got a really nice piece of driftwood with two types of anubias attached to it. They didn't have any pennywort right now, I might consider buying some online at some point.

Without as much bright light, the frogs aren't afraid to sit out on the rocks, and they seem to like the driftwood as well and sit on and under it. They think they are hiding but I see them! :)

So things worked out great. Thanks for the help!

As far as that other plant goes, it is still yellowish but it's not disintigrating at all, so I'm going to leave it in the tank for now.
 
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