Red Root Floater help?

I've been having my red root floaters for about 6 months now. They have been doing fine for the most part, and their roots were bright red, abundant, and healthy. Recently they started overcrowding with the other floaters and growing above water. People told me this was normal, so I paid no mind to it.

I just cleared out some of the floaters today and detangled/spread out the red floaters and saw that their roots have gone from 2 inches to five inches, and they were previously dark/bright red and very bunchy, but now they are very pale and spindly. They look more like terrestrial plant roots. I think it's because they were so tangled up and squished together, but it could be something else. Is this a bad thing that I need to fix? The leaves looked fine to me, and they just bloomed this spring.







It's hard to tell in the last picture, but they are growing about 2 inches out of water.

 

Not sure why they got so long but the lack of red usually means there’s low nutrients in the tank.

 

I think the red in the red roots has to do with the amount of iron added for nutrients. I have just tried to grow red root floaters and am having mixed results. Most of them died off, but I have a few that are starting to grow new roots and even a few new leaves. I will be ecstatic if mine grow to look like yours.

 

IME, Red Root Floaters are the slowest of the "lilypad-type" plants.

Lots of iron and light will help with the red coloration. They range from white roots to bright red depending on the tank they're in.

 

You can just trim those roots off if they get too long, I trim my RRF down every now & again & I've never had an issue. Usually when they are stressed the roots will loose color and turn brown, if stressed enough they then fall off and die.

I've never added extra Iron. I add a few drops of liquid fertz every other morning for RRF. I have tested them under 4 different lights though, and they stay green under low light, they turn pink, red, even purple under high lighting.

Yours are flowering which is really pretty though! It's completely normal for them to form a "pig-pile" they are climbing towards the light.

One more thing I just thought of, I have purchased RRF from 3 different stores online, and each grew differently, and into different colors!