cesarz Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 What species and varieties of amazon swords are available in NZ? And where can I get them? :roll: I already know of: Echinodorus cordifolius Tropica Marble Queen Echinodorus osiris Ech horemanii x horizontalis 'Rose' Echinodorus subulatus Echinodorus parviflorus Does anybody have Ech. schleuteri "Leopard"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 You know of those or you have those? I have the marbles and two types of Rose swords - can assume one is Osiris and the other the 'rose' hybrid mentioned above. I have two leopard swords - one doing very well and the other getting overgrown by "dwarf sag" that has undergone a major growth spurt since the intro of MH lighting. I traded mine with a local who had plantlets. I also have pygmy (tennelus) and regular (quadricostatus var. ''magdalenensis") chain sword. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 LMAO. Sup Cesaar. Didn't realize it was you. You finally got me to list my swords! Keep up the sneakiness and catch me on cold meds again and you might get that list of Crypts off me, too! Welcome to the forums, bud. When you gonna come out for a five-cent tour? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 I have red special, ozelot and martii also and are aware of horizontalis cordifolius (used to be radicans) and osiris rose. I would like to get hold of horizontalis if anyone has some spare. It is a slow propagater and is therefore not grown commercially much, but a lovely plant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 Yeah Blue, its me! Decided to stop lurking and join in. Those swords I mentioned are the ones I know of and only the marble, the osiris and the rose are what I have. Love to score some Leopard though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 Hi Alan, I forgot to mention that i bought one tiny cordifolius fluitans (also known as horizontalis and radicans) from animates, very tiny. I love your osiris it forced me to get a tank, finally, when are you releasing martii? I promise to share the cordifoluis fluitans when bigger. I would like to know if anybody has Echinodorus grandiforus aureus. These plant must be here in NZ since we have the marble swords, they did a big stint years ago having the Marble Queen, Leopard, Rubin and Gradiflora Aureus as one set. Have seen Rubin once in Animates two years ago, nice red like a crypt but I was not interested back then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 cordifolius used to be called radicans and is quite different to horizontalis which is a relatively small plant which does not go "rank" like cordifolius or marble queen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 Oh, didn't know that - thanks, I always used to call cordifolius fluitans as the horizontalis because it also has its leaf blades flat horizontal. I checked out the books and yes, horizontalis has honeycomb pattern of lines (between the main leaf veins) on its leaves and my one only have straight lines so it is just cordifolius. Thought I had something special there for a moment. :oops: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 I used to grow horizontalis 30 years ago and know of one person whith it who will not sell me any until he grows it up. They will only have a couple of plantlets at a time and mine didn't grow more than 300mm high. My martii has a runner at present, but I am waiting till they get a bit better established. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 Marble queen is basically a varigated cordifolius. I don't grow them because when mature they want to send out an "arial" leaf and all you see in your tank is stalks. You can keep them small by periodically trimming the roots, or the same thing may happen by restricting the roots in a pot. They are a good plant for people with large open tanks. There are some huge ones at Redwood Aquatics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted June 17, 2006 Report Share Posted June 17, 2006 I have a 60cm tall tank with an open top for the MH lighting. The Marble swords grow out of the tank a good 20cm and the floral stalks are at least 120cm long. In this setup it looks amazing, but in smaller tanks it wouldn't be so great. You can keep the leaves from growing out by keeping the floral stalks from reaching the surface of the water. My swords generally grew only 30cm tall until I let the stalks emerge. Great plants and the discus love spawning on the leaves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 Hmmmnn.... I'll be in Christchurch next weekend, I'll check out Redwood Aquatics, any other shops offering unusual swords? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboi Posted June 18, 2006 Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 I have a 60cm tall tank with an open top for the MH lighting. The Marble swords grow out of the tank a good 20cm and the floral stalks are at least 120cm long. In this setup it looks amazing, but in smaller tanks it wouldn't be so great. that tank sounds stunning any chance of an picture maybe starting on another thread. i always wanted to do something like that but thought it would be a nightmare on power to keep the tank temperature and evaporation would mean top up the tank every couple of days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 18, 2006 Report Share Posted June 18, 2006 Cesarz, when you are at Redwood aquatics have a look in the tank they have a demonstration CO2 system. I haven't been their for a while but it used to contain (among others) both martii and horizontalis. See if he will sell one to you--- I had no luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Alan, I will try to wrestle the horizontalis from them, I'll use my charm $$$. If not I'll dazzle them with my other charm $,$$$. If all else fails, i'll just get horizontalis and everything else from Tropica. Has anybody been successful with importing plant material from them? I have been importing orchids in sterile flasks for years and have encountered no problem bringing them in. And tropica has aquatic plants in sterile flasks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 It is not on their list of plants. I don't think it is grown commercially because it propagates so slowly. I made big offers to Redwood and still got the big NO. Bob only had one and one offspring and wanted to get more---makes sense. If you see it you will recognise its characteristic form if you see it elswhere. It is a nice small plant and I grew it many years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Hi Alan, The main reason I am hunting for these plants is firstly to be able to hybridize them. I used to actively hybridize echinodorus about twelve years ago when Tropica first released their varieties and I came up with good broad leaf reds and nice variegated reds. Too bad I got out of aquariums and nobody I know wanted them so I sent them all to Singapore. I have a tissue culture lab where I can grow the babies 100x the normal growth rate in sterile conditions and also propagate them by the hundreds in just a short time. This is just a hobby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Horizontalis would be good because it is fairly small. A lot of the hybrids seem to be to osiris and can be large plants. I have bought E. leopard recently from Holywood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neill Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Hi Cesarz Can you please expand on the plants in sterile containers as it may be worth looking into. Neill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Hi there neill, Plant propagation labs grow their plants in sterile jars with nutrient agar at the bottom to sustain the plants. These sterile containers are allowed into New Zealand without passing thru quarantine as long as the plants it contain are allowed by MAF. The aquatic plants may be planted straight from the sterile jars , after cleaning the agar off the roots, and they grow as if nothing abrupt happened. this is actually better than growing them emersed to get good growth and then submerging them. By the way, the plants in the sterile jars grow their submerged form even if there is no water inside. Knowing this, it is easy to select which ones will look good in the aquarium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted June 26, 2006 Report Share Posted June 26, 2006 How did you get on at Redwood Aquatics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cesarz Posted June 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 No luck with the horizontalis at Redwood . At least now I know what it looks like and there were three of them. The staff said that they will be selling the plants in the CO2 tank when they set up a new one in the new display area. They will also have an area just for rare aquatic plants. If you are interested, they said that you have to register your interest and they will phone you. I did register. Anxiously waiting for their call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted June 27, 2006 Report Share Posted June 27, 2006 Have you had a look at this thread? http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/plant- ... 13940.html He will courier for you, as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.