# problems with red tiger lotus and star grass



## graham7 (Nov 15, 2006)

hi I have a 30 gallon(uk) tank with two 42" grolux tubes and a substrate that is 50/50 eco complete and gravel with D.I.Y yeast reactor that feeds into my fluval intake ,I keep my lights on for 12 hours per day. I recently purchased a red tiger lotus and was surprised that it did not have a corm but just roots ,I planted it and it has continued to shed one leaf a day although confusingly smaller leaves are growing . the stems of the leaves that are being shed have a shredded look to them , I am assuming this is not being caused by my fish what do you think could be the problem.
Also I purchased a sad looking piece of star grass it was grey to light green in colour but I had read that it was a vigorous plant and assumed that it would pickup but then i read an article saying that star grass does not like sudden light changes and this causes an initial die back followed by regeneration . Does any one know what my problem is?


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## sarcare (Sep 10, 2006)

For the tiger lotus, I've found that when transplanted you may loose some of the older larger leaves, but if you trim them off at the base of the stem, other leaves will quickly grow. Since I prefer larger lower leaves on my tiger lotus, I will frequently clip off the long stems anyway. All my tiger lotuses are from other hobbiests, so they are roots only, since they are daughter plants. I've had great success with just roots, so don't worry.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

I don't think there is a problem, sounds as if what is happening is normal.Tiger lotus will shed leaves when moved to a different enviorment. As long as you see new growth it will be fine, just keep the dieing leaves cut off. As for the Stargrass, I don't see any hope for it. Always by healthy plants to begin with, so the plant can recover if any die off does occur.

I would advise to cut the lighting period back to 10 hours a day; 12 hours is really not needed.

_Are you dosing ferts?_


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## iceblue (Dec 2, 2005)

I had bought some stargrass out of state while visiting relatives and it stayed bagged and in a box for over a week. By the time I got home and was ready to plant it was in pretty bad shape. I salvaged what I could and now it is over running the tank. Plants can be pretty resilient and can surprise you. Can't hurt anything so give it a whirl. Plant it and if in 2 weeks time it is not growing, rip it out.


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## Mud Pie Mama (Jul 30, 2006)

iceblue said:


> Plants can be pretty resilient and can surprise you.


Agreed! I've seen this over and over again; it's the will to live against all adversity. One great trick to help a poor stem plant recover is to just let it float on the water's surface for a week or two. This gives it the most intense light to quickly jump start some new leaves to grow.


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## graham7 (Nov 15, 2006)

thanks for the info on the tiger lotuses , Im feeling a bit better about that one now especially as their are smaller newer leaves growing lower down , as for my star grass if its not growing in a fortnight I'll do as you suggest and rip it out . I have a new question for you now , I have a broadleaf amazon swordplant and it has put a runner up to the surface and i noticed small green shoots on the sides yesterday the small shoots sprouted into what look like small leaves . As I understand it these are new plantlets and not just new leaves is that right ? and what do I do with them if they are, do I just leave them or what?:


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## iceblue (Dec 2, 2005)

Well, if roots appear under what appears to be leaves they are new plants. Next it depends on what surface the runner shot up to. If it was the surface of the substrate you can just leave them in place. If it was up to the surface of the water I would wait till they get about half the size of the mother plant before cutting them off. This way they can build up their strength. On the other hand you could just weight down the runner and the new plants would then grow into the substrate themselves.


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