Please help ID this plant for me

It was labeled as an assorted plant and I liked the coloring so I went ahead and bought it




The next plant is a floating plant...I know this isn't duckweed.




thank you for your help

 

First plant looks to be a red melon sword. second looks to be salvinia.

 

thank you.

Does red melon sword grow big? It's currently in my 10 Gallon, but I also have a 100 Gallon

 

They do not get as large as amazons.
I have had them get to about a foot across/high here.

 

Why would anyone be worried about a plant growing too big? Couldn't one just trim it if it gets too big?

 

Because some plants need more space to live. If you just kept trimming it over and over it would start to gain momentum in growing, so your trimming it faster, it becomes a chore. I had a red melon in my 10gal as a matter of fact. Out grew it way too fast for my liking(few months) and for what ever reason, the roots refused to die when I trimmed the top an they covered the bottom of the gravel. Moved it to my 29, where it promptly died.

Besides, its much nicer to let the plant grow out, however, its pretty much like saying "why don't we just trim a oak sapling to keep it small forever." Regular trimming is always need of course, just not to keep the planted stunted imo

 

Ah! Understood. Thanks for explaining.

 

How would you trim a plant like that? It looks like the leaves to almost all the way to the bottom.

 

hmm...now I got to make the decision to either keep it in my 10 gallon until it gets big or transfer it to my 100 gallon.

it looks like a cool plant and I've never seen one before.

 

How would you trim a plant like that? It looks like the leaves to almost all the way to the bottom.

That's exactly how you trim it. Just take down any leaves that get to big. I was taught in gardening classes that root length directly corresponded to plant height, the longe the roots the bigger the plant, the smaller the plant the less the roots etch. But when you trim the plant the roots don't die, they just push the plant to regrow. If you trime the roots, a portion if the plant may die off to compensate.

You could probably wait it out in the 10gal

 

Another gardening tip is that trimming the growing tips of plants (called the apical meristem) encourages lateral growth. This is because the tips house hormones called "auxins" which inhibit lateral growth, so the plant can grow tall quickly to outcompete neighboring plants for light. If you snip the tops of the plant, then it becomes bushier. Unfortunately for your specific plant (which is a monocotyledon and not a dicotyledon), I'm not sure the auxins are stored in a similar place, as your plant is mostly leaves anyway....food for thought at least!