Rotala and Vallisneria, suitable in 2.5wpg Tank?

[Sammie7]

I'll try again. If you cut the leaves anywhere, they might just rot away. The runner should look like a little stem, kind of like the stem of the rotala only green with a little arrow shaped tip. You probably don't have any runners yet since it seems yours is fairly young and is just getting used to your tank. Yours is still pretty small. The runners aren't necessarily under the gravel, as you shouldn't have the base of the plant( the white part at the bottom) under the gravel, because the plant will die if you push the base under the gravel. This plant only reproduces by runners, as far as I know. When the main plant sprouts a runner, the runner will grow about 2-3 inches away from the main plant. Then it will start growing into a new daughter plant. This plant will grow up and sprout a runner and continue the process. When doing this they start to form a chain along the gravel, because they are still connected by the original runner. Did any of this make sense this time? If not, then all you need to know is to keep the base above the gravel and let the plant do its thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vallisneria
http://www.tropica.dk/article.asp?type=aquaristic&id=764

A wise man once said, " a picture is worth a thousand words."
In this case it just might help you understand.

 

[will5]

Hi

Or, you could just trim it to keep it down.

You will want to put a short plant or ornament in front of the Rotala. It will grow so fast that it will not be able to support the lower leaves of the plant, and they will die and fall off. It is the Rotala's way of competing with algae. For this reason I trim my rotala from the bottom instead of cutting it from the top like you do with most plants.

High no matter how much triming you do it will still get to big hight wise and if you were to trim it that way you would have to cut the leaf in half or at least cut the leaf off before it gets to tall and doing it this way the plant will never look good.



Yes you could trade it for other plants if you wanted.

 

[$eaba$$]

Thanks a lot guys!

Yes sammie, I understand well now, thanks for the great info! And thanks to you other one