quick question, i bought myself a tiger lotus from HFF albany a couple of months ago and its doing well (i think) its got a couple of new little plantlets but is it normal for it to only have floating leaves? its got a a few young leaves around the base but HEAPS of floating leaves i recently cut them off save about 4-5 coz they were blocking all the light in the tank but they just keep growing wider in diameter

is this normal?

do i not have enough light?

IME they are a high light plant. They send up more leaves if they don't think they are getting enough light. Also - the more surface leaves you allow it to have, the less submerged leaves it has.

HTH

so should i cut off the floating leaves?

With lotus and banana plant if you want submersed growth it is best to nip off the leaves heading for the surface as they put them up. With banana plant if you nip the floating leaf after development it will often develop plantlets on the stem if you let those leaves float.

Mine grows big leaves at the surface too. It is the light. I only have 4 daylight fluoros on my tank.

If the parent plant has put out pups you can pick one off once it has a couple of small leaves and some roots. Plant this in an open space under the lights. Let it grow submersed leaves, and pick off any tall leaves BEFORE they reach the surface. This will give you a good comparison.

With your parent plant you can pick off the floating leaves to let more light in. Mine survived with 4 healthy floating leaves. This may encourage it to send off more pups.

Also do you use Flourish Excel? It is a great product which adds bio-available carbon for plants to use in photosynthesis. It is a replacement for CO2 and works very well.

I do you flourish excel... occasionally when i remember :oops: :oops:

If i pick off too many of the floating leaves will the plant die?

Picking off the leaves should trigger the plant to sent up more leaves. You can keep snipping them off just before they get to the surface. In a while the plant will 'get the message' and grow more submerged leaves.

I recommend more regular Excel for the plants. Even if it is every second day. Dose 1mL per 40L of tank water as the bottle says. This will help the plants use more Nitrates from the water aswel

These floating leaves are the normal form of the plant and what we are doing is attempting to keep it in its juvenile form. This can be done with lotus, banana plant and some large swords like cordifolius. It is easiest if you get them at the juvenile stage and maintain that rather than try to revert them. You can cut off the floaters and hope it sends new submersed leaves (and doesn't die). Digging the plant up and cutting the roots will often encourage the juvenile state in cordifolius and might work here.

so i guess its not a bad thing having floaty leaves? phew ~ i'll just leave it alone and let it do its thing when is a good time to separate the little babies do i have to separate the baby or can i just leave them?

having too much floating leaves will block the light getting through. You can leave the baby plants and let them grow bigger.

ron