Dwarf Sagittaria- Sagittaria Subulata

[indiginess]

i just picked up a bunch. got a nice deal, i think... 20+ rosettes, runners all which ways... for US $5.

anyway, i was curious to hear some others ideas on how to plant, general experience, and the like.

i've got TOO much i think. its going a 20H gallon low light (20W) setup with little fertilization... i add intermitant KCl and tap water for traces. i change water with RO (pH maintains ~6.8). i think i'm going to pick up another light strip this week... i'm also condsidering picking up a liquid CO2 product. this tank has had steady growth, though not lush, for about five years. first plant addition in two.

the sag came out of a high light tank... should i expect large dieoffs, or just stagnant growth? the val. spiralis is a steady slow grower, runners along the back, mostly. a small grove of crypts spread very slow. i just moved the filterflow away from them, so i expect a little larger leaves in the next few months...

i'm wondering if low light is going to cause a lot of fouling leaves... start small, or plant it in dense?

any anecdotal experience with Sagittaria sublata is sought.

thanks guys and gals.

 

[SuperiorMN]

I bought "10" dwarf sag. on aquabid about 2 months ago when I started my 5gal. Right now I think I have upwards of 30 plants, not including runners that have just started. This is all in one of those MiniBows with the single socket hood. I'm using a 10W spiral compact that's an aquarium bulb ($11 at LFS, $6.80 online) supposedly full spectrum but have also used a 9W "warm light" bought from HomeDepot ($3.47) for about 1 month each. The 9W has a nicer color to it and makes all the plants look really green, the 10W has a real white-blue color that I don't really prefer.

Either way, the plants have exploded. I dose Flourish twice a week and some PMDD 3x a week. Inhabitants are a single Dwarf Gourami, 2 Otos, a bunch of cherry shrimp and snails. Feeding flakes, algae wafer bits, shrimp pellet bits and blanched veggies. That means that there's virtually no excess food (mostly snails clean it up), but the Dwarf Sag. is right in this feeding area, so they get the direct benefit of snail poop. :thm:

Anyways, the only way to predict die-off would be to know the size of the plants. I've seen pictures of dwarf sag. with leaves up to 4 inches long, where as mine are closer to 2 inches. I can only theorize (imo) that this is due to the room they have to grow horizontally. Once it gets really packed horizontally, they might start growing vertically. Just my thoughts.

Eh, I guess that's enough for now.

Regards,
Marty

 

[indiginess]

thanks, marty.

the bulk of the rosettes are in the 2-3" range. many ~1" plants too.

 

[Captain Hook]

In low light you can expect it to look like this:

Full size

In good light/conditions it can look like this:

 

[indiginess]

(bump)

thanks for the pics, captain hook... as helpful as always.

anyone have any experience with this plant in hard water? i'm thinking i might try to get some to root in my malawi tank, since i have so much. it's not native to the lake, but it might help to spruce up an area of the tank i call 'Poo Valley.' (i use the other word in the comfort of my own home, hehe.)

thanks for your time.

eric

 

[beviking]

Mine grows in hard water (GH ~11). It's quite a hardy plant. Once it fills in and the plants are a little older, you might see some grow taller. I have some that have close to 12" leaves.