I Thought Lace Plants Were Supposed To Be Hard???

I impulse bought a gorgeous Madagascar lace plant.

After reading about its requirements I thought I made a huge mistake and it was destined to die. BUT this thing is growing like mad! It has more than doubled in size in only 4 days!

I'm having no luck finding any information on trimming these plants. Has anyone had experience maintaining these???

The pics are from day 1 and day 4.

 

Yeah, they seem to like my water too so I was surprised to see it grow so well. If the leaf dies trim the whole leaf down to the stems, same as you would with sword plants.

 

Do I have to wait till it dies? What will happen if I cut healthy leaves off? Seems this isn't something people do with these and just let them grow. I didn't realize how big these get till now.

 

I have had them in the past. Lovely plants. The leaves need to be kept free of debris. Never trim part of the leaf but as Mcasella said remove the whole leaf. Also, they go dormant from time to time. They like to be removed and placed in water in a dark environment for a (I think) a month.

You have me missing having them. Where did you find them if I may ask?

 

I have had them in the past. Lovely plants. The leaves need to be kept free of debris. Never trim part of the leaf but as Mcasella said remove the whole leaf. Also, they go dormant from time to time. They like to be removed and placed in water in a dark environment for a (I think) a month.

You have me missing having them. Where did you find them if I may ask?

I got mine off of Nofishtoday, seller on aquabid, they have a website.

 

Yeah I read about the dormant stage...these things have all kinds of weird needs.

Found it at a lfs. Was totally an impulse buy. Kinda regret it.

 

Yeah I read about the dormant stage...these things have all kinds of weird needs.

Found it at a lfs. Was totally an impulse buy. Kinda regret it.

I wish we were closer, I would take it off your hands

But you gotta say, they are about the most beautiful plant in aquariums.

 

Here's a better angle.

Agreed absolutely beautiful plants!

 

I'd probably take you up on that offer but yeah Ohio...that's not exactly around the corner lol

 

Some shots of the one I had several years ago. You can get them on line. I may just do that.

It is in the back.
1.

2. Mr. Betta resting in the lace hammock.

 

Beautiful tank! What size is that?

 

Thank you

That is a 44 gal pent. The setup as you see it was taken down two years ago. Had a fungus issue with bio active substrate that was a disaster.

 

The Betta was in a 44 gal? He must've loved that! Lol. I was originally looking at substrate that for my tank. Why was it a disaster?

 

Yeah, bettas generally need a shallow tank but with all the plants close to the surface he was happy.
It was Eco complete. It only took a month after the setup for it to be covered in pastel blue/green slime.

This is the thread on the build.
The 44 project

 

Wow...glad I didn't go with that stuff. It seemed more like a gimmick than anything. It really was a beautiful tank though. It looks so much deeper than it actually is. Impressive.

 

Wow...glad I didn't go with that stuff. It seemed more like a gimmick than anything. It really was a beautiful tank though. It looks so much deeper than it actually is. Impressive.

Yeah, I did everything I could think of to save that build. But in the end it had to be torn down. It has been re done but it is no where near what it once was. I was re doing it again last weekend (the x-mas moss and cripts were getting out of hand) When the peppered corys decided to spawn in the free floating mass of moss and cripts. *sigh* so all is at a stand still till I see if any babies make it.

This tank was an exercise in the principals of art. I used plants near the glass to the left and right to curve around an open center to give the illusion of greater depth.

 

Well it definitely worked. The tank looked like it went on forever. Shame it had to be torn down.

I was also getting to that point with my 65 where nothing was going right. My plants and fish were dying, equipment kept breaking and I was waging a seemingly never ending battle against algae.

I came so close to just starting over. But I stuck with it and things are finally good.

My plants are finally growing, maybe too much based on the lace plant that started this thread, but I'll take it over the way things began any day! Lol

 

Well it definitely worked. The tank looked like it went on forever. Shame it had to be torn down.

I was also getting to that point with my 65 where nothing was going right. My plants and fish were dying, equipment kept breaking and I was waging a seemingly never ending battle against algae.

I came so close to just starting over. But I stuck with it and things are finally good.

My plants are finally growing, maybe too much based on the lace plant that started this thread, but I'll take it over the way things began any day! Lol

I have some ideas for that tank but have to wait and see if there are babies in the moss.

Sounds like it is all coming together for you what I have seen it looks like a very nice tank setup you have there.

 

Thank you!

Good luck with the babies if any and keep me updated on the build. Based on that other tank you know how to build some beautiful aquariums!

 

Thank you!

Good luck with the babies if any and keep me updated on the build. Based on that other tank you know how to build some beautiful aquariums!

Thank you I will let you know how things go.

 

Day 6... its more than tripled in size in less than a week! I'm dumbfounded!

 

WOW!!!! That is some plant you have there.

Where did you get it? And do they ship? I want a couple.

 

Tell me about it! NONE of my other plants have grown anywhere near that much!

I picked it up at a place called Pets Warehouse here on long Island.

I often see tanks labeled with "Plants/fish Sold, Online Order" in the store so I they might ship but I'm not positive.

Last I was there they only had 1 very small, and 1 large lace plant left. But considering the way mine is growing that "very small" one probably isn't anymore lol

 

This what it looks like now... 2 weeks later
.

 

Looking good

 

I believe the word you were looking for is HUGE! lol

 

Looks great! I love my aponogetons, except when they take over, which is often... love/hate I guess
You may want to increase your phosphates a bit to help with the gsa

 

Forgive me...gsa?

 

Green spot algae, on the plants to the left of the stump, behind and in front. I found I had some on my slower growing plants, and amazingly found that by adding a bit more phosphates it stopped

 

Thanks for the tip! Perhaps you could offer some advice on my other thread:what's wrong with my dwarf lilly??? I'd appreciate your input

 

Well, I pulled the trigger and ordered 3 lace plant bulbs on line. They got here today. I am formulating a build for the 44. Might not be as good as the 44 project but I will give it my best shot. Hopefully they will all sprout.

 

Very cool! Good luck with it! I was literally just playing with mine.

This is how long the leaves are now! Keep in mind my tank is 24" tall!

I'm formulating a plan to do some trimming. Not sure how to go about it...

 

This set up is AMAZING

 

Are you referring to mine? Thank you! But Thunder-o-b's tann was/is awesome as well. I can't wait to see what he does with his 44 gal.

 

Are you referring to mine? Thank you! But Thunder-o-b's tann was/is awesome as well. I can't wait to see what he does with his 44 gal.

I have the bulbs in the 10 gallon with the baby mollies and baby cherry shrimp. I also got 2 pots of an "easy" ground cover plant that looks a lot like baby's tears but does not need super bright light or CO2 injection. I will run updates as things develop

Your plants are wonderful.

 

Monte Carlo maybe? Oh and did you have any baby cory's?

 

I picked up a lace plant at my LFS about 3 weeks ago. It had about 7-8 gorgeous leaves. About 2 weeks in the plant had completely melted, so I cut off all the leaves and left the roots. I figured I'd wait a week just in case. I now have a few lovely, healthy new leaves that are growing rapidly. Glad we are all having a good experience!

 

Looks great, how's the lilies?

 

Monte Carlo maybe? Oh and did you have any baby cory's?

Yes Looks like a cool plant.

I have not seen any cory babies. I have been moving things around in the 44 looking, but nothing. It's ok, they will spawn again after I redo the 44. I will do a large water change. That should trigger a spawn

 

Looks great, how's the lilies?

Thanks! The lace plant has pretty much taken over my tank lol.

As for the lilies, the one that had the original problem is finally starting to grow back. BUT now I'm seeing the other one has large chunks missing from its leaves. So it appears that one is having issues as well.

I tried Flourish to help with repair but all I got was a marginal plant growth and a ton of algae...

So here I am with a ton of algae, a supposedly easy plant doing horribly and a supposedly hard plant doing amazing. Baffling.