Ocelot Amazon Plant

duggus562

Hi All.
Question; My Ocelet Amazon Plant has been growing like crazy the last 5 months. It has sprouted a shoot that has reached out of the tank and has new plants beggining on it. Question is ; should it stick out of the water or should I re-submerge the shoot???
Duggus562. Appreciate any help!!

Byron

It really doesn't matter much, but I would keep the plantlets under water. The "shoot" is called an inflorescence because it is where the flowers normally appear. With Echinodorus species, flowers occur above water and usually only if the plant itself is grown emersed (above water). Echinodorus (swords) are marsh or bog plants in nature; most species spend half the year emersed and half submersed when the rivers flood the surrounding land. During the emersed phase the plants grow more and flower. Most species adapt very well to permanent submersed (underwater) culture and thus make excellent aquarium plants. Inflorescences will be produced according to the health of the plant and species, but instead of flowers, plantlets or daughter plants will grow from the nodes along the inflorescence. This occurs whether the inflorescence is above or below water.

Rarely will flowers appear on submersed growth plant inflorescences, but it does occur in some species. I had flowers on the inflorescence of one of my E. major plants a couple months ago, and posted a thread with photos in this section of the forum; if you dig back you will find it. But this is quite rare as I say in plants grown fully submersed.

The plantlets should be left on the inflorescence until they develop several leaves and have white roots about 1-2 inches. They can then be pulled back off the inflorescence and planted in the substrate as new plants. Or you can leave the plantlets on the inflorescence; in this case, I find the plantlets usually get covered in algae as they are closer to the light.

Byron.

sik80

my Amazon Sword can probably grow its new leaves by a couple of inches in a day after i add root tabs. the growth rate is amazing

duggus562

Byron, Thanks again for the help. After following your advice my previous algae problem is essentially gone. Still there but on a very manageable scale. Thanks again.
Duggus562