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amazon plants


reef

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  • 2 weeks later...

Echinodorus of any variety is prevalent in the Amazon.

The further inland from the coast you go the bigger the plants are.

I personally like the following and in the order listed. :wink:

Echinodorus bleheri .............grows enormous up to half a metre.

E. macrophyllus...................grows to 50 centimetres.

E. grandiflorus ....................grows to 45 centimetres.

E. osiris...............................grows to 45 centimetres.

E. schlueteri.........................grows to 25 centimetres.

E. tenellus...........................grows to 10 cenimetres.

All the above are available in New Zealand, however if there is a rush on the people that grow them you can bet the prices will treble overnight.

:lol:

:bow:

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It's quite difficult to get the manicured look of many of the tanks on the ratemyfishtank site when you are using sword or purely Amazon plants.

The Echinodorus plants are all quite big (except tenellus) are tend to look quite wild and straggly. It's difficult to grow other plants around them and keep things looking organised. If you are willing to forgo the larger swords it becomes much easier to manage.

Echinodorus tenellus

Echinodorus uruguayensis (if you can find it)

Hydrocotyle verticillata

Ludwigia inclinata

Christmas Moss

Cabomba piauhyensis

Cabomba caroliniana

The above plants are either totally Amazon or very close to being so. Not a huge range and they're not all the best or easiest to use plants. An Amazon tank has a very untidy look due to the types of plant. These plants will give the least untidy look. If you go for some of the larger Echinodorus plants it will look more wild. I've had most of these plants at some stage over the last 10 years and change the style a little now and then so it doesn't always look the same...

However, having thought I had an Amazon tank, I've discovered tonight that only about 40% of the plants are... Searching through my books has revealed a slow introduction over the years of non-Amazon plants. The tank certainly looks less wild and out of control than it used to but it's also now a bitsa tank. There's plants from Africa, Sri Lanka, Asia, America - basically everywhere. While there's still a definite Amazon theme, the original concept has been lost.

I prefer the Amazon look though as it is definitely more natural looking than many of the beautifully manicured tanks around. It's only my preference mind you. I'd also put money on the manicured tanks being harder to look after.

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My book that sets up an Amazon rain forest stream suggests;

Cabomba caroliniana (Cabomba)

Echinodorus tenellus (dwarf swordplant)

Myriophyllum aquaticum (water milfoil)

Eleocharis acicularis (hair grass)

and bogwood

Myriophyllum aquaticum is now a Nationally banned plant. It is illegal to poses or move it. Any sightings of it should be reported to DOC.

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The echinodorus I prefer are red special (because it has about 5-6 of the new leaves red), bleheri or amazonicus, martii (crispate leaves) leopard (small form and patterned leaves) ozelot (patterned leaves), uruguayensis (lots of tall ribbon leaves) and magdalenensis and tenellus as smaller foreground plants. I have all of the above and they are on Trademe from time to time. Many of the echinodorus here have come from tropica and are hybrids to osiris and get quite large. The ones I don't like are cordifolius,marble queen and the giant cordifolius (macrophyllus) because they grow so rank and all you see in the tank is the stalks (probably good in an open tank with metal halides). The one I would like but don't have is horizontalis because it propagates slowly and is not very commercially viable. I also have Hydrocotyle verticillata on Trademe (it is grown emersed but converts to submersed growth easily and is the only Hydrocotyle to remain in the media and not grow up to the light) Another good foreground plant.

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