If only my Blyxa plants (both japonica and the sp. 'red') refuse to grow roots and eventually float up to the surface, what would you suspect is the problem?
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What's Your Best Guess
- Thread starter Unexpected
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I had this problem with my Blood Vomit. It would never grow roots. I finally decided it was being uprooted so much, that it couldn't grow roots. I anchored them down and now they have roots and are multiplying like crazy.
So maybe anchor them, and see if that helps.
So maybe anchor them, and see if that helps.
I have a bunch of blyxa in my tanks. It grows really well for me... Usually. In one tank it gets uprooted a lot. That's the tank with rabbit snails and 3 bristlenose. I am not certain who the culprit is, but I suspect the rabbit snails. Blyxa has small, weak roots at it's best, so my guess is you have a critter that is disturbing it.
My experience is the opposite of Minorhero -- my blyxa get some of the largest root balls. The Blyxa Octandra in my tank had a root ball that covered 1/3rd of the tank, removing it uprooted other plants because of it. Is there a chance they're unhealthy or missing something? I find that high PO4 levels helps with strong root development...
- Thread starter
- #5
Should have everything, I'll double check tomorrow. Dosing 4.8ppm a week. Maybe I screwed up when mixing my last bottle.
My wife made the last bottle.....
My wife made the last bottle.....
Blyxa Octandra must be a beast!
I should have specified, I only have blyxa japonica. I would be shocked if it could grow a big root ball.
I just grow mine in sand. This is the usual size of roots. A lot of smaller offshoots do tend to break away and dislodge from the substate though and those ones don't have much of a root structure. Like the photo, in my high tech tanks they are fine and root well, but in my low tech tank, its more of an issue. That one is full of bristlenose which I think are the culprit.
- Thread starter
- #8
Mine just stopped growing root and the roots disappeared.
JayP
Valuable Member
Remember those old Folgers Crystals commercials? Maybe someone replaced your fine Blyxa Japonica with fake plastic plants to see if you could tell the difference. That's my best guess.
I also have Blyxa japonica. It has decent roots. It usually doesn't get uprooted much though. It has lately as I've been more aggressive about removing algae. I've yanked it up, shredded leaves off, and put it back a couple times now.
I have blyxa japonica in a deep depleted aquasoil. Its roots are massive, rivaled only by the crypt spiralis. CO2 aplenty.
Same thing happens to me. My hypothesis is it has to do with how often you move them. I've noticed that with some plants, after replanting, the next time you uproot them the roots will be off-white and a little slimy, clearly dying. With those ones I trim off the root ball, but they often take a long time to start growing roots again.
Blyxa is the most reluctant to grow new roots, and the most annoying since it's so prone to floating up
That's a good point from @gjcarew I should agree with -- blyxa takes FOREVER to get established and grow roots in my tanks... but once it does, then they explode.
The blyxa octandra I'm currently growing didn't do anything for about 2 months, then suddenly -- it exploded. And roots were everywhere. Same with Blyxa japonica in previous tanks:
Blyxa doesn't die or melt like crypts sometimes do when moved, but it does seem to take a while to get established before exploding. Maybe that's your issue @Unexpected ?
The blyxa octandra I'm currently growing didn't do anything for about 2 months, then suddenly -- it exploded. And roots were everywhere. Same with Blyxa japonica in previous tanks:
Blyxa doesn't die or melt like crypts sometimes do when moved, but it does seem to take a while to get established before exploding. Maybe that's your issue @Unexpected ?
- Thread starter
- #14
Hmm, weird. The Sp red has been unmoved in a good long while. And then just randomly floated up. I do move the Japonica ever so often. I'm going to test PO4 here in a few minutes as my purple Cabomba stems separated last night. I'll have pictures shortly.
- Thread starter
- #15
Zero roots.
Bizarre. That level of plant tissue melting is something I only see when I suddenly and drastically change my CO2 levels. like from 40ppm for months to zero to 60 to 10 in the span of 3 days. Any CO2 issues recently?
I'd trim a lot of those outer leaves, leaving only the freshest inner leaves, so the plant can focus on root growth for a little while. I would bet that with good CO2 it will 100% bounce back!
I'd trim a lot of those outer leaves, leaving only the freshest inner leaves, so the plant can focus on root growth for a little while. I would bet that with good CO2 it will 100% bounce back!
- Thread starter
- #17
No CO2 issue. It's pretty consistent these days. Let me pull out the Hanna to check, but here's my graph.
I backed off just a bit, you can see as the graph moves to the right. Went from 4.9 to 4.97ish.
- Thread starter
- #18
Just tested 40ppm CO2
Just one of those insane fluke mysteries. I have had excess micro dosing cause melting too, but it sounds like you've done nothing to cause this directly.
Like I said, I'd just trim a bunch of older leaves off, plant it again, and give it some time. Should bounce back just fine IME.
Like I said, I'd just trim a bunch of older leaves off, plant it again, and give it some time. Should bounce back just fine IME.
- Thread starter
- #20
I was actually over dosing Micros, but have corrected this now. It's been one week after making the correction.
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