# Ludwigia helminthorrhiza



## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Hi guys,
I'm the lucky new owner of this species of floating Ludwigia straight from Tropica. Here's a link to their product card and an article on it with some lovely pictures.
http://www.tropica.com/productcard_1.asp?id=034A
http://www.tropica.com/article.asp?type=aquaristic&id=242
Needless to say my plants do not look anywhere near this good! I've got most in my 5 gallon nano, but have but a stem in my 40g (55g US) tank that has more light and CO2.

I'm wondering has anyone else got this, or kept it in the past? It says 'Difficult' for the growth but I'm wondering what exactly that means! I'm assuming it's the lighting level.


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## gibmaker (Jan 3, 2007)

Do you have yours floating or planted? let me know how they are doing, they look awesome. I would like to float a couple of those in my tank and watch them flower.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

ed seeley said:


> I'm wondering has anyone else got this, or kept it in the past? It says 'Difficult' for the growth but I'm wondering what exactly that means! I'm assuming it's the lighting level.


I would assume so as well.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

They're floating at the moment. The little root floats are well developed so I thought they'd be best like that. It also keeps them nearer the light! Hopefully the one in my main tank, which is right under the 98 watts of lighting will do well even if the ones in my nano don't!

At the minute they look a bit sorry for themselves, due to the shipping and change of conditions I think. Hopefully they'll perk up soon!


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Well as this isn't apparently a new plant I'm hoping a number of people have a bit of experience with this in the hobby and can give me some advice.

After a couple of days floating in my tanks I have found that the stems are rotting. They're turning to brown mush. I have trimmed off all the brown bits and left the 'good' bits floating. The ends with newer leaves are turning red, a sign of more than adequate light according to Tropica, but there doesn't seem to be too much new growth yet (not too surprising as they are so new).

Is this 'normal' or something that can happen with ludwigias in general? My water is very soft, will this be an issue? Tropica say it likes very soft to very hard water.


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

Could be adjusting. Or maybe you don't have enough light. All I've read says this needs a tremendous amount of light to prosper.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Thanks Mr Belvedere. I think, as the new growth is showing some red tints, that the light is ok. I'm hoping that any problems are caused by adjustment/shipping. I am still having some stems rotting and I am removing them when they show by trimming to healthy parts.

Has anyone out there grown this species? Did you find trouble with it at the start or with it's growth? The Tropica site has some lovely pictures but all it seems to say is lots of light and it will go red!


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

*Update*

Well after one week it seems that the rotting has ceased for now. I'm hoping therefore this was a shipping provoked incident!

It is definitely doing better under my higher light in my main tank, with new growth coming pretty rapidly, but it's doing pretty well in my nano too with only an 11W CF.

Unfortunately I haven't got any of the nice white flowers yet....

I'm still hoping someone - anyone - out there has grown this before and can give me some more info? Anyone??


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Well I thought it would be good to update this thread as I still haven't heard much about this species elsewhere.

The plant survived it's rotting episode and has grown steadily in my nano tank under 11W light. It hasn't flowered, but extended a couple of long stems across the tank.
The pieces I placed in my main 40g tank under 96W of light all died! I don't put this down to the light but to the fact that that tank got rather overgrown and I think the Amzon frogbit and salvinia smothered it.

Recently I have taken pieces off the ends of the original bit to get sideshoots and left one in the Nano andf moved the other growing piece back into the main tank, now almost devoid of other floaters, to see if it does better. Now that it's growing I just need to get it thriving and flowering!
Another plea for any other people who are growing it! Any info/experience anyone?


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