Just got a bunch of plants from the pet shop but I don't know what they're called. The goldfish are not interested in them so they're still ok. I have a barebottom tank so I placed them in small jars filled with gravel and I leave the light on for around 6 hours a day. I just got them yesterday, and amazingly, they have grown! Some of them a lot, like around half an inch and some maybe not that noticable. The fact is, they've grown. Amazing! This is the first time I've gotten real plants and I'm quite successful. I guess i gotta trim them in a couple of weeks.

congrats! U must have a good tank and the plants r gr8ful 4 it!

Congrats to you!!! I swear,once you find a live plant that you have some success with,it's like you create this monster that wants more and more live plants! The thing is,live plants are great for the fish,they help eat some of the nitrates up in your tank,and they look so gosh darn nice!!! Are you able too post pics? Maybe we can help you identify them? Anyway ,continued success!!!

I don't know why but am not able to post pics here. The site won't allow me. Anyway, they're fun to watch and monitor their growth. I hope they grow big so they could spread across my tank.

If that's what I think it is, it's probably

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Plantdir/hyg-diff.htm

I bought a bunch from bioresearch. It looked like bermuda grass at the start, just an inch high. After a week it was more than 6 inches tall.

Nope...not that. The ones I bought look like anubias but I'm not sure. The other one looks like green straight twigs with lil tiny leaves on them. They surely grow quick.

I've noticed that those dead leaves are doing a lot of harm on the living plant. Gotta snip em off later. I have to do gardening now on my tank!

Went back to the LFS and asked the guy what my plants were. One of them was a amazon sword and the other one was something like "baupa" or something. I couldn't remember the name. Anywoo, they're growing really fast even if my fish would like to nibble at them.

I got another bundle of plants for my tank and it came with a teeny-tiny snail. I was really happy when i saw the lil hitch hiker and placed him in my tank. He was only in the tank for a minute and my pearlscale ate him! darn it.

your amazon sword will grow fast, i shoul know <_< , so make sure your tank is tall enough so the leaves wont pop out of the water, oh and my fish love eating those little snails as a snack too.

I've got some problems with some of my plants. It seems that the plants haven't been rooted to the gravel well that when my fish bumps it, it disloges and floats to the top of the water. What should i do?

which plants are doing that?

A lot of stem plants really do better floating then they do rooted. They get their nutrients from the water column and don't really have roots, just feelers to hold them in the gravel.

Basically you need to be patient and try to bury the stem as best as you can in the gravel. You can use lead weights made for this purpose, but planting them in one big bunch often means the stem will rot and they'll float up. They usually root best if you plant each individual stem so light can still reach the bottom. Not much you can do though if the fish keep digging them up, plecos are horrible with that. They tend to plow right through and shove it out of their way.

I use one of those huge rubber bands that come on broccoli to tie my stem plants to a piece of slate and bury that in the gravel. When I do my weekly partial water changes, I pull them out and vacuum well. Both my anacharis and hornwort grow so fast, I end up trimming off about 4 inches of bottom each week.

yeah...i tied them all up to keep them from floating. The prob is they're slowly dying. Well one of them at the most. The guy from teh LFS said its a "baopa". Not really sure. But my amazon swords are doing great, but some of my fish have em' for lunch.

Bacopa? Look here and tell me if this is similar: http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

If it is, its also called Moneywort and is very easy to grow, you just have to get it to stay rooted. Try planting each stem individually and see if you can put some decoratins or rocks or something blocking the fish from knocking them loose.

Thanks for the site. And yes, that's exactly it. The bacopa caroliniana is the one always getting knocked off and is dying right now. But my bacopa monnieri is doing great!

Some of my plants died. Darn it. They were too much to handle for me. But my amazon swords and bacopas are doing great.

Read somewhere that amazon swords need iron? How in the world should i give them iron?

You could put a fertilizer tablet under the roots.

Yep, fertilizer tabs under the root. Look for Flourish tabs at the fish store.

So that means i have to dig out my plants again? But wouldn't it hurt my fish? Good thing amazon swords grow quickly coz my fish are eatin them day by day

should be able to push it under there with your finger.

No, just stuff it in the general area of the plants. Make sure you follow the directions though, and don't put too many in.

Thanks for the help guys. Another problem arises, my fish eats the leaves of my amazon swords. They had a feast of it. Now there are only about half the leaves on my plants and some are half eaten. Is this ok for my plant?

You could put a piece of zucchini in the tank for your goldie to munch on. Mine also like green beans, peas, lima beans, broccoli, etc. Feeding fresh veggies might help.

How much light do you have over the tank?

I have a 25watt pink light over the tank. I did that before. I gave them a piece of veggie to feast on so they won't bother my plants but i got the opposite results. Now they know how yummy veggies are so they feast on my plants when i don't give them any.

a pink light? any idea what color temp it is?
how old is it? Even tho they keep putting out light, you have to replace bulbs regularly cuz I've heard they don't do as well when they get older at putting out the type of light that plants need to grow well.

So how's big's the tank?

I'm running about 4 watts of 5000K and 6500K lights over my goldie tank and the plants are very happy. My tropical tanks have the standard stock lights on them, but they are by a south window and the plants there are loving the sunlight.

Its pink but in the tank, it doesn't look so pink. It's what they all use here for growing plants. Mine is kinda new, just about a month old. My tank is 20g.

If it's one of those fluorescent bulbs that come in the plastic hoods, it's putting out 15 watts of light. That puts you at under 1 watt per gallon. The swords won't grow fast enough to keep up in that much light even with a root tab under it. Unless you put the tank by a window (preferable a south window) you'll probably end up having to stick with low light plants like java fern.

Guys, ya know, I've been thinkin about it i think my LFS is wrong. They told me that the plant was a amazon sword but i checked out on this site and looks more like anubias to me

so does it have a rhizome?
Here's pics of several different anubias
http://www.tropica.dk/plant_print.asp

I really can't find it. But here's a pic. Its the one on the left

Nope, that's a sword, possibly a melon sword but I'm not that familar with the different types. Its a sword though.

That bulb is not going to work with live plants. It just doesn't put out the amount or type of light they need. You could get a screw in compact flourscent but that will still only give you 10-15 watts of usable light, though it will be better than the one you have.

You could try growing some crypts, java fern and java moss at your light level, though I wouldn't really expect much growth even from them. If you are serious about live plants, you're going to have to upgrade your lighting.

Its a 25W bulb in a 20 gallon tank. They're growing fine here. Kinda quick really. A new stem grows out ever 2 weeks.

Yes, the bacopa (moneywort) will grow under just about any lighting, but the sword is going to need a heck of a lot more than that.

What we are saying is that screw in bulb doesn't put out the right light for most plants. There's a huge difference in the way plants use the light produced by flourescant bulbs (tubes and power compacts) vs incandescent (screw in) types.

Sorry if I didn't made it clear before but i have a flourescant bulb. A pink one in fact and looks white in the tank. I so used to using the term "bulb" that i didn't notice it meant another thing.

That's good. a bit more light than I thought. about 1 watt per gallon. Plus the height of the containers will help get the plant closer to the light.

I think the sword is planted a little too deeply. we should be able to see where the stems meet at the bottom on the plant.

I didn't know flourescent bulbs came in 25watts... Generally those are the little screw in colored bulbs. That's why I assumed it was incandescent. Are you positive this is flourescent?

Yep. positive. Those long darn tubes that light up....that's it.

Now they're growing real quick. Even if my goldies would take chunks of it off for a lil snack. They're still ok. Amazing.

Cool.

My plants are acting up again.

One of my baopas died mysteriously.

And now my swords have lil cicular brown marks on their leaves. Darn it. What could have caused this mess?

I changed the pot for one of my anubias and noticed how its roots grew and took a good hold on to the gravel. When i placed it into the new pot, it was kinda loose and hopefully it will root itself well. Amazing

I have no idea on the brown spots. So how are your swords doing?

They're doing fine. A new stem grows out every week. They've grown to around twice their original size. Some of the stems die though but the plants are still ok. The fish take a snack out of them once in a while.