Madagascar Lace Plant

F

Faramir

The twit from over the pond.
Nov 20, 1998
738
0
0
Chesterfield UK
I've always been fascinated by this plant.

My old trusty aquarium encyclopaedia (bought when [yorkshire accent] Ah were but a lad[/yorkshire accent]) said, basically "bloody hard to grow, avoid".

But I remain fascinated. I've found a UK mail order place where I can get the plant - costs about a fiver. But I'd appreciate any tips from people who've kept it - either "don't do this, it killed it!" or "do this - mine grew really well!"
 
First go to The Krib:

http://www.thekrib.com/

and search on Madagascar Lace, and if you don't run across "soil soup" in that effort, look into "substrates" there as well. If you have problems locating, repost and I'll help find.

I have good results and poor results and cannot always tell why. But I have had best results or most consistant results following the advice there. Rich substrate (does not have to be deep) and root competition/company. Small Crypts have worked best for me, but not C. parva (it seems to need more light).

There are also either several species or forms of the plant, the big-leaf form has done better for me. But it can get HUGE when it grows at all. It severely over-crowded a 65 (US gallon) 36x24x18 tank - so I tried to move it (it was tray planted) in its tray and it went dormant and never came back. I have never had one come back from dormancy.

All that hassle and negatiivity aside, I'm seriuosly considering trying again - nothing else has quite the effect of a big lace plant, with Amanos climbing all all over grooming it and Harlequins swimmimng through it ... Perhaps it is worth it...
 
Ta. Might be a possibility later. When I can persuade Mrs Faramir to part with the dosh to set up a suitable home for it.

:D
 
I've grown them to immense sizes(24 inch Lx6" wide single leaves) and flowered them, got them to seed, and rasied the seeds for 2 generations.
They are easy to grow if you keep the water cooler, less than 23C is good.
They even do well in goldfish tanks.
they will grow in other warmer tanks, just not as well or as long.
Regards,
Tom Barr
 
I had one for about 6 months , it grew like crazy , large leaves and plenty of them . Then snails started eating it and it went dorment . I have not seen any leaves in about a month . I have checked the buld and it is still firm , so I hope it will grow again . If not I will have to get another after the clown loach has eaten it's share of snails .
 
I grew some outside and those came back, but never in a tank, I'm almost positive that it's a temp related issue.

Warm temps cause the plant to go nuts for a few months then flower hopefully, seed then die.
If you keep it cooler, they have no domancy period. I've had many flowers on some plants. They do well in many substrate types.
2w/gal, CO2 etc produced the best looking growth.

Once they putter out, they tend to do well, they always say it needs kept at a certain temp etc for a few months then returned to the tank etc. I don't know of anyone willing to play with that. Where I lived, the temp's were very similar to that of their natural range and they did well outside.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Tom - what you said over at that UK site about this plant has inspired me to try one for my cooler water killi paludarium - I intend to keep this around 20-22C.

I can get one mail order for £6.75 - I suppose that's around $10 US - is that a good price?

In this tank the light will be subdued by floating and emerse plants - will that be to its liking? Because the plants are emerse, I wasn't planning on injecting CO2 - I'll let the atmosphere do that for me. Will this be OK for it?
 
10$ is not bad.
The main thing is keeping the water temps down. Don't move the plant ever.
They hate that. I've had them in very deep substrate and also in deep gravel with RFUG. Fairly undemanding plant IMO.
It'll do better if you add CO2.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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