Tropical Fish Hobbyist - December 2007

The Planted Tank
Flowering Rosette Plants in the Aquarium
Rhonda
WILSON

photographs by the author

Most of the plants we grow in our aquariums flower naturally in the wild, but this can be a rare instance in home aquaria. It can be very exciting to find your aquatic plants producing blossoms, and some can even be propagated this way. There are a few tips for knowing what plants are most likely to flower, and what they need in order to do so.

Flowering plants are called angiosperms. Not all the plants in the aquarium are angiosperms. Mosses, liverworts like Riccia and pelia, and aquatic ferns like Java fern, Bolbitis, and Ceratopteris are more primitive plants that don’t produce flowers or seeds, but instead create spores, thus their name of “sporophytes.”

Of course any of the flowering plants that we keep in our aquariums have the potential to flower for us, but some are much more likely to do so than others. There are several aquarium plants that are happy to surprise us with flowers, while others may require more coaxing. In this column and the next I’ll list a few of the aquatic plants most likely to bloom in the aquarium, as well as the type of care they need in order for this to happen.

Rhonda Wilson keeps about 80 planted aquariums collected over more than 30 years of fish keeping. She is co-author, with Terry Barber, of the T.F.H. book, The Simple Guide to the Planted Aquarium. She’s also written several articles published both in the US and abroad. Rhonda has been active in local and national fish and aquarium clubs including serving as past chairman of the American Livebearer Association. She has a lifelong love of animals and nature. She currently lives with a zoo of children and pets in the Phoenix area of Arizona. You can see her website and post questions on her bulletin board at http://naturalaquariums.com.

Aponogeton

For many people, one of the first aquatic plants to bloom in the aquarium is Aponogeton crispus, which has been popular in the hobby for many years. This species is quite variable and can be crossed with other Aponogeton, which has resulted in several established cultivars as well as hybrid plants. One of the reasons that Aponogeton has become so popular in the aquarium trade is

the ability of the rhizome to withstand a dry period, making these plants easy to ship. You may even see them hanging in small dry bags in pet sections of larger stores.

I’ve personally had some problems with the bagged rhizomes surviving, but I have had success with the ones I purchased already sprouting in aquarium stores. The problems I’ve had with the bagged type were probably due to me living in the hot, dry Arizona desert. It seems reasonable that they would easily dry out or get too hot during shipping here. I’ve heard of many other success stories with the dry Aponogeton rhizomes in other parts of the country, though.

These plants will usually do better in soft to moderate water and may have trouble in harder water. They will appreciate a rich substrate. In a new aquarium or a tank with very clean substrate and no additional nutrients, Aponogeton will probably only last for a few months at best. It will do better with specially prepared aquarium plant substrates, or if you’d rather, you can use a small layer of potting soil or compost under your gravel. There are many options available and most of them seem to do the job if you’re consistent in your approach. The addition of CO can

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also be helpful for growing Aponogeton, particularly if you have harder water. The plants may sometimes die down and may not seem to have the longevity of some aquarium plants, but many can be kept alive for several years if they are well cared for.