Madagascar Lace (Aponogeton madagascarensis)

C

cheeseb0y

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Jan 29, 2005
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A little under a year ago I picked up a roughly 8" tall Madagascar Lace plant. It was happily growing, but not increasing in size. Then I moved, and through an unfortunate series of events, the plant was left in about two inches of unheated water for about a month. All but one leaf died, and I planted the bulb in a different tank, where it proceeded to grow faster than any other aquatic plant i've seen. It's now about 18" tall, and new growth seems to have slowed or stopped. I've only had to remove a couple of dying leaves.

My substrate is EcoComplete. I have 65 watts of light on a 29 gallon tank. I do 5 gallon water changes once or twice a week. I fertilize with Flourish, Flourish Excel, Flourish Trace, Flourish Potassium, and Flourish Iron. I also use the Flourish fertilizer tabs. For some reason I didn't think to put one under the Madagascar Lace until yesterday. I also add Blackwater extract. My temp is 78f. There is very little algae on the plant, thanks to a group of Amano Shrimp and a couple of Farlowella cats.

I've read somewhere online that this plant might need to have dormant periods, and it did seem like it grew better after I mistreated it.

Does anyone have any advice as to what to do to keep this beautiful plant healthy? Any idea as to the validity of it needing a dormant phase every now and then?

I think i'm going to pick up another to grow out, as even if I can keep the first one alive, I really wouldn't mind having two.
 
From what I have read about aponogeton is that once it grows to a specific size, it will bloom. With that bloom the plant normally is supposed to start slowly dying off and going into a dormant period. Though I had never experienced that.

Instead of buying a new plant check the roots of the current one. Specifically check the bulb. When the plant is mature enough the bulb will grow a but away from the roots, this is where you can break it off and in a few weeks a new plant will begin to grow out of that bulb.
 
It actually did bloom about three months ago, and that's about when it stopped growing. I feel like an idiot for not putting 2 and 2 together there.

I'll check the blub/root structure when I do my next WC in a couple of days.
 
Over a month later, and I finally do something about it. I waited until pretty much all the leaves were dead, and then pulled it out and dropped it into a filtered, unheated tank with decent light and a massive colony of MTS.

Three days after doing that, the MTS have cleaned it up nicely, and there's already new growth.
 
To be honest, i'm not happy enough with my ability to keep it alive properly, and the information regarding how to get new plants out of it is more confusing than how to care for it.

I have read that it reproduces with runners, I have read that it reproduces through seeds. I have read that you need a male and female plant for the seeds to be fertile, I have read that you don't. I've never seen a runner from mine, and for some reason (still feeling stupid, months later) I didn't try to grow the seeds.

If giving it this dormant period works as I hope it will, I might get another bloom out of it (it blooming is apparently rare and not rare. more conflicting information). If it blooms i'll try to grow the seeds.

Right now i'm simply hoping I can revive it, because it seems to be possible, but also seems to be the biggest issue with the plant. I realize that not everyone has a stable planted tank sitting around that won't mind going unheated for awhile, and I really wish I had multiples so I could try other methods of forcing dormancy, but this time, at least, I wanted to go with the best possible option.
 
Roughly four days after moving the bulb/rhizome/roots/whatever to the unheated tank. It has now grown two small new leaves, both of which are under a half inch. That's more new growth than i've seen from it in months. I'm guessing that it's growing so slowly because of the temperature. I'm hoping that when I move it back to my tank in another 6-10 days it'll show lots of fast healthy growth.
 
8.5 days after the beginning of forced dormancy and the two new leaves are about 1.5", as well as there being a bit more new growth. I'll probably transfer it back into my tank in about 4 or 5 days, depending on when my roommates breeding group of cherry shrimp get here as that tank is going to need to be heated again.

Things are looking good so far.
 
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