Amazon Swords

[Rorie]

I have just got some fish from a friend who has shut down his aquarium. He also gave me a load of amazon swords. But the tank i put them in is bare, so i cannot plant them. Do they need to be planted?

They are REALLY good quality! Not a single bad bit on them. If i sold them, as i dont want to see them go to waste if i cant plant them, what sort of price would they go for?

Thanks

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Now there has been a large debate on this since time began lol. But I think they will be fine a they draw most of their nutrients from the water column and not the substrate, as long as you have the light on for 4-6 hours a day they should be fine

 

[jacko32]

if you leave them floating they will just die after a week or so all the leaves will become patchy and start to rot away

 

[dafrnhm]

I have 2 lots of amazon sword, 1 of them is planted and has a few brown leaves which I trim off so it looks fresh. The other plant is pushed into a hole in 1 of my ornaments and weighted down, so the roots are just dangling in the water, this plant has grown and is as green as green gets.

I don't know if its advised plant them or not but they are thriving floating in my tank.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

if you leave them floating they will just die after a week or so all the leaves will become patchy and start to rot away

My mother plant is fills my 70L and that is tied to bog wood and is doing very well another plant i glued to a rock is doing well too si my advice is tie it down to someting but dont cover the roots

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Actually the plant is uptaking a lot of what it wants from the water via its roots. The thing is these plants should get huge. I made the mistake of getting a mother plant for a 75 gal. It was in the substrate-

 

[coldcazzie]

I had 2 swords floating in my tank for about a month before I planted them. The only melt they suffered was the change from emmersed to immersed growth. Other than that they were very healthy. Even if they do take up via the roots rather than leaves, the roots and leaves are both in the water system regardless of where they are in the tank, so it doesn't make any difference I don't think.

 

[StandbySetting]

If you plant it in the substrate keep the rhizome above the substrate level, otherwise super glue it to wood and rocks.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Sbs it doesn't matter how deep a sword is planted, I've had swords for like 8 years and never had a prob with them being deep in the substrate.

 

[StandbySetting]

I've always read that the rhizome shouldn't be fully submerged in substrate, I guess it depends on how deep you bury it.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Weird I must have had like 20 huge swords over the years and the crown was always buried lol

 

[coldcazzie]

Swords don't have rhizomes...

 

[StandbySetting]

They do, they're short corm-like rhizomes, but after further reading you're fine to bury them in the substrate, I was misinformed.

 

[Rorie]

haha, looks like i started somehting off here!!

I have ended up taking out the stem plants out my show tank, and putting them into my tank with new fish. I then planted the Amazon swords in my show tank with the discus - looks good!

 

[coldcazzie]

Glad you've found somewhere for them Rorie