# Alternanthera Question



## Fishguy10 (Aug 6, 2011)

Hello, 

I have a 29 gallon aquarium that has been up for about 9 months now with 96 watts of 6500K T-5 light and CO2 that I keep around 35ppm. I also dose EI for a tank of my size. The PH is usually around 6.5 and the water is soft. I do not have any fish or shrimp in the tank yet. 

For some reason, my Alternanthera Reineckii 'Roseafolia' has been looking kind of bad lately. It never seems to actually grow roots under the gravel, it just grows tons of aerial roots from the stem. Because of this, a couple of stems have floated right out of the gravel. It also doesn't seem to want to grow many leaves lower on the stem, just at the very top. This leaves the lower 3/4 of the stem looking kind of bare. I think this is normally caused by low light, but I only have about 3-5 stems growing and they are spread apart, plus I have fairly high light and nothing really blocking the lower stems. The stems themselves are fairly narrow in diameter and soft and bendable. 

The plants seem to grow right up to the surface of the water and then grow horizontally across the surface, which leaves a large dense clump of leaves right at the surface with a thin bare stem holding it up. The leaves themselves are fairly small and kind of oval shaped, which is really weird because when I first got the plant and had it in the tank for awhile it had longer leaves which came to a point at the tip. The leaves are still kind of an orangish brown color and the undersides are still metallic pink, although not quite as bright as before. 

I can't replant the floating part because the entire bottom half of the stem is completely bare and doesn't have any roots or leaves at all. The upper half is covered in a tangle of leaves that face all directions. I'm not really sure if it's growing, but it seems to constantly be losing leaves. 

Everything seemed to start the first time I trimmed the plant. It had grown all the way up to the surface and was just starting to get it's first leaves on the surface of the water, and I trimmed it back a little bit. It never really recovered. I've never trimmed it again because for a long time it never got any taller, it just sat there and now that it has finally started growing again it's growing strangely. I have some Ludwigia Glandulosa in the tank and it responds very well to trimming, so when the Alternanthera stopped growing I was surprised. 

Is all of this normal for this plant? Does it naturally grow horizontally and get so thick and bushy? Are the stems supposed to be so thin and flimsy? Does trimming this plant set it back? 

Any help would be greatly appreciated


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## Fishguy10 (Aug 6, 2011)

Does anyone have any experience with this plant?


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I am growing this plant. It is in a 15g tank. I do not use co2 and I use a cfl, I think it is a 23watt. It grows very slowly. Feeding it a bit seems to perk it up but it is still fairly slow. It seems to prefer growing from the axillary buds on the stem. I find that if you lie it down on the substrate rather than pinching it back it seems to do better. I don’t think it likes shading itself either. The bottom leaves just seem to keep falling off. 
From one stem I now have about 6 stems growing up toward the surface. You might find that letting grow across the top of the tank will help it to put on the axillary growth. I haven’t tried that. 

It does seem to be a very hardy plant. Mine is only about 7 inches tall right now. When it gets to be about 10 inches I will try growing it horizontally on the substrate again. I am not sure it would look very good being any taller anyway but I don’t have anymore headroom in this 15g tank. 

Hope that helps.


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## Fishguy10 (Aug 6, 2011)

Thanks for the response. 

I'm not really having a problem with it growing, just with it growing vertically. Right now it is a giant thick mat floating on the surface of the water. There are no longer any stems still in the ground, and the ones that were have pulled up revealing bare stems without any roots at all. The plants seem to almost be rotting from the base up. 

The floating mass (and the vertical stems that used to be there) send out a ton of aerial roots, almost more roots than leaves actually. The entire plant is covered in aerial roots, but it doesn't seem to have any actual roots at all. 

You are right, it definetly seems to prefer sending off side shoots. Mine didn't seem to like being cut, because after that it seemed to stop growing vertically.

These were the only plants I had in the entire back right corner of my tank, so the only thing that could have shaded them was themselves. Now they are a floating mass about 12"x12" and they are blocking the light to the right side of my tank. 

What shape are your leaves? Mine have completely changed from the larger pointed version I always see in pictures to small oval shaped leaves (about a half inch long) on the lower parts of the plant with slightly larger (about 1") slightly pointy oval leaves at the very top of the plant.

Thanks in advance.


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