Could use help Identifying this redish purple plant i just bought

[tabletopfishguy]

So the deal is that I bought a topfin plant from petsmart (along with new multiple plants for a new planted 10 gallon) and the packaging for it said some type of cardinalis but Im not exactly sure if thats right. I know what the swords and buce are but i have little clue as to what it is. Is it going to melt these red leaves grow green ones?

 

[PygmyPepperJulli]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Sorry, really bad at plant id (this’ll be way off, just a random guess) but to me looks like some sort of hygrophylia. As to the red leaves (I know ever so slightly more about this)… it depends. Red leaves are usually better and more prominent in high tech (strong full spectrum lighting, co2, and fertilisers (especially ones that contain iron, I believe) than low tech setups. It could melt (I know nothing about cardinalis) but that is more likely if it was grown above water (emersed) or just finicky like a crypt. If it doesn’t melt, the green leaves are more likely to come though as new growth rather than all the red leaves becoming green or melting to become green.

Don’t take this advice like it’s from a professional (because it’s not ) and if you already knew all this, bear with me. Hopefully someone more educated can pick this up .

PPJ

 

[Aqua67]

Looks like alternanthera reineckii to me.

 

[malfunction]

I’m not the best at identifying plants, but looks like an Alternanthera to me

 

[tabletopfishguy]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

Sorry, really bad at plant id (this’ll be way off, just a random guess) but to me looks like some sort of hygrophylia. As to the red leaves (I know ever so slightly more about this)… it depends. Red leaves are usually better and more prominent in high tech (strong full spectrum lighting, co2, and fertilisers (especially ones that contain iron, I believe) than low tech setups. It could melt (I know nothing about cardinalis) but that is more likely if it was grown above water (emersed) or just finicky like a crypt. If it doesn’t melt, the green leaves are more likely to come though as new growth rather than all the red leaves becoming green or melting to become green.

Don’t take this advice like it’s from a professional (because it’s not ) and if you already knew all this, bear with me. Hopefully someone more educated can pick this up .

PPJ

Completely aware that red plants in gen typically require better lighting and co2, I am liquid dosing the tank with co2 right now not sure how much that’s helping but planning to switch to co2 injection soon since a lot of kits are on sale right now, Thanks for the welcome! Just a returning user on a new account getting back into fish keeping.

 

[jaylach]

Don't know the plant but do have a red lotus. More than using CO2 I would give light doses of an iron supplement such as Flourish Iron. While CO2 is great for some plants the same cannot be said as to fish.

Does this plant have a 'bulb'? If so raise it so that at least a third is above the substrate. Many bulb plants will rot if the bulb is totally buried.

 

[Boundava]

I’m not the best at identifying plants, but looks like an Alternanthera to me

Agree ...

 

[tabletopfishguy]

Don't know the plant but do have a red lotus. More than using CO2 I would give light doses of an iron supplement such as Flourish Iron. While CO2 is great for some plants the same cannot be said as to fish.

Does this plant have a 'bulb'? If so raise it so that at least a third is above the substrate. Many bulb plants will rot if the bulb is totally buried.

not exactly sure if its a bulb or not, it also seems to send off stems that grow small roots, a piece of one broke off that had roots coming out of it so im just letting it float for now, this is a picture of one that started floating, i dont like using plant weights and just make a hassle for myself

 

[Boundava]

No, it would not have any bulbs because it's a stem plant. Stem can and will grow roots over the length of it's stem along the nodes where leaves grow. This means that you can cut it in half, pick mthe leaves away and replant it in the substrate and propagate that way. Stem plants can become long and lanky quickly with good parameters, not enough light or if they don't have enough nutrients in the water. So they need regular maintenance.

TBH I know a lot of people are fans of stem plants but I never was just because of that issue. I like cypts and sword plants (but can't have them with plecos, lol) and bulb plants like aponogeton. Red and green tiger lotuses (and Egyptian lotus if you can find it) are good as well however you have to train them, otherwise the leaves will quickly grow all the way to the top of your tank and cut off light to everything else. If you decide to go with a lotus or what they call a lotus (they aren't really lotus from what I understand) the way to train them is to snip off any of the leaves that trail up. Eventually the plant will compact itself. They have massive root systems once established. I had one on a 75 and it was self propagating. Decided to pull mama lotus out and her roots were the bottom of the 75, over 4' long in some areas.

 

[tabletopfishguy]

No, it would not have any bulbs because it's a stem plant. Stem can and will grow roots over the length of it's stem along the nodes where leaves grow. This means that you can cut it in half, pick mthe leaves away and replant it in the substrate and propagate that way. Stem plants can become long and lanky quickly with good parameters, not enough light or if they don't have enough nutrients in the water. So they need regular maintenance.

TBH I know a lot of people are fans of stem plants but I never was just because of that issue. I like cypts and sword plants (but can't have them with plecos, lol) and bulb plants like aponogeton. Red and green tiger lotuses (and Egyptian lotus if you can find it) are good as well however you have to train them, otherwise the leaves will quickly grow all the way to the top of your tank and cut off light to everything else. If you decide to go with a lotus or what they call a lotus (they aren't really lotus from what I understand) the way to train them is to snip off any of the leaves that trail up. Eventually the plant will compact itself. They have massive root systems once established. I had one on a 75 and it was self propagating. Decided to pull mama lotus out and her roots were the bottom of the 75, over 4' long in some areas.

Thanks a bunch for the insight i figured its propagation would be easy, def need some root tabs and/or maybe liquid ferts because it seems like a lot of the plants are struggling/melting (could also just be dieback since they are grown emmersed), the substrate is flourite that has been previously used for a planted tank and i was stupidly hoping that the gravel would already have a good amount of nutrients in it surely im wrong though. Especially after rinsing the gravel

 

[Boundava]

It up takes a lot of nutrients through the water column so a fertilizer in the substrate would be beneficial but not necessary. It also likes higher levels of CO2, but again it's not necessary. As someone mentioned it does like iron which will keep the leaves redder. It can grow emmersed as well so if you have an emmersed plant expect some die off when you put it underwater.