Rotala

[DJDrZ]

so, with this forum's help, my Rotala was identified as rotundifolia. I have two questions about it.
1. Does R. rotundifolia still turn red at the tips? My Rotala (esp. the new growth) is reddish at the top.
2. Some of them are putting out "aerial" roots from mid-stem. Is this common? I thought that only happened when they were nutrient starved, and by the growth of the rest of the plants in my tank, I would think they are not.

 

[cradlefan]

I thought rotala shot roots out like that naturally no matter what the conditions were.....?

 

[rockhoe14er]

1. Under high high light this plant will turn red

2. lateral shoots are fine and perfectly normal.

A lot of people actually bury this plant horizontal and in a couple weeks you will get stems emerging at each node. This give a much thicker growth of Rotala Rotadafoilia.

 

[dundadundun]

yep... what they said, lol.

in it's natural state, rotala is a tropical, ground creeping vine. grows up a little, gets too long, leans over and touches the ground and throws new roots... then keeps on with the same pattern. that's why the roots shoot out. surely more nutrients would help to limit that, but it's probably just going to happen due to the nature of the plant.

rotundifolia does get red... like pinkish red... with some orange, yellow, yellow/green etc. as you get further from the light.
rotala colorata gets RED... like burgundy red... and the leafs tend to grow up from one side of the stem towards the light whereas rotundifolia grows it's leafs from all around the stem and the stem grows towards the light. with colorata, the stem tends to grow adjacent to the light to allow the leafs to point upwards.

 

[2rivers]

I like to float the stuff for a few weeks until I have some long roots. If you pluck the leaves on the bottom of the stem, roots and new stem divisions grow. My Rotala Indica has lost all its pink in my low-light (2800K) unfert. but has lots of bright green new growth, fun plant to play with. Cant figure out how to keep Rotala with my modesta loach though. My Rotala always ends up floating in that screwy loach tank

 

[WeedCali]

Why do you have it growing under 2800k light?

 

[2rivers]

Why do you have it growing under 2800k light?

I had to put the Rotala Indica ina shallow 10g after my loach keep destroying my aquascaping attempts. Ive been breeding pygmy corries and killies in this tank near an East facing window and theres not enough plants yet, so instead of having an algae problem to deal with I just went with the Hagen Flora-Glo. Foster and Smith had a sale and the bulb was under $10. Im cheap. I still have the max daylight bulb I can put back in if I ever need more light. I stick with mostly simple low-light plants for now

 

[WeedCali]

oh ok. I had that bulb for a while

 

[fishorama]

yep... what they said, lol.

in it's natural state, rotala is a tropical, ground creeping vine. grows up a little, gets too long, leans over and touches the ground and throws new roots... then keeps on with the same pattern. that's why the roots shoot out. surely more nutrients would help to limit that, but it's probably just going to happen due to the nature of the plant.

rotundifolia does get red... like pinkish red... with some orange, yellow, yellow/green etc. as you get further from the light.

I agree, my r.rotundifolia is pinkish at the top of a 75g/96w T-8s. I rarely add ferts. It gets "aerial" roots when it wants to lie down & spread but mostly it grows up without stem roots. Not a big deal either way...