Lagenandra meeboldii experiences?

[HybridHerp]

New to this forum but not new to planted aquariums. I've been going around looking at various aquarium plants for my 75, since it still remains in shambles and I'm thinking about decking my tank out with a bunch of plants that I either find interesting to look at or that I find are not the most common of plants.

Saw this for sale somewhere and I've bee looking into it, it seems like a nice plant but I am getting mixed reports about its growth and how overtaking it can become. I've also seen some discrepancy in the color it has. Anyone have any experience with this plant?

 

[krandall]

I was the person who first introduced the pink Laganendra meeboldi into the U.S. hobby, many years ago now. It was sent to me by a friend in India, who collected it from the wild. It does grow large, but not terribly fast. It can be handled like a big Anubias... When it gets too big, dig it up, keep part of the rhizome, and pass on the rest to someone else. It would definitely need to be a background plant in a 75G.

As far as color goes, my understanding is that the normal green one is much more common in the wild. But since most of what is in the hobby comes from the pink plant that was originally sent to me, most that've seen in the U.S. is pink and pale green stripes. I have't grown the green type, but I. Wouldn't be surprised if it grew bigger than the pink one... It's pretty comon for unusual color morphs of various plants to be a bit smaller.

 

[HybridHerp]

Wow, cool. Never thought I'd talk to the person who brought the plant into the hobby

Yah, I'd definitely want this sucker to be in the background somewhere. I saw some pics online where older specimens had a color that was a deep purple, kind of like an Aflame Sword, and now I feel like its something that I must have lol. I'm kind of curious though, even though it wouldn't seem to make the most sense, but can this plant be grown being tied onto the driftwood? I know that it needs to have the rhizome above the substrate, but just wondering if it would be worth tying to the base of some wood or something. I'm thinking about growing it alongside a Red Rubin Sword that I acquired, but I am still debating exactly how I want to scape my tank.

 

[Tom Barr]

I grew it in the back on my 120 for awhile, got too large, but had a nice color.
I would treat more like a large sword plant today.

 

[krandall]

I haven't grown it attached to wood, but can't say it WOULDN'T grow that way. As far as a deep red color is concerned, I haven't had it get that dark, and the photos I've seen of it in thw wild were not dark... Definitely pink. There are many red (or reddish) plants that respond to (temporary) nitrogen deficiency by becoming extra-red. I say temporary, because, of course, you cna't KEEP plants in a permanent state of nitrogen deficiency without running into a host of problems in the aquarium. This is a "trick" often used in aquascaping contests. i can't say for sure, but it is possible that this was done to the L. meeboldi that you saw dark red.

Of course, the plant has been in the hobby for quite a long time now, so I suppose it is also possible that someone has selectively propagated plants that are redder than those originally collected.

You are certainly going with some big plants! I LOVE Rubin swords, but they are really to big for a 75G tank. They will take over half the tank, and have their leaves laying on the surface of the other half.

 

[krandall]

Tom, you fed the danged thing too well!.

 

[Tom Barr]

On the color note, yes, it was a pretty mauve pink color actually. I never had the deep red coloration, plenty of Sword plants avail for that color contrast.
The lighter pink had some appeal to me. Then I learned to grow the snot out of the R macrandra. Weedy to be sure, but easier to trim.

 

[krandall]

On the color note, yes, it was a pretty mauve pink color actually. I never had the deep red coloration, plenty of Sword plants avail for that color contrast.
The lighter pink had some appeal to me. Then I learned to grow the snot out of the R macrandra. Weedy to be sure, but easier to trim.

R. Macrandra is one of my all time favorites. And I like the "old fashioned" regular variety better than the narrow leaf, green, etc. the green, especially reminds me of albino fish. Take something really beautiful, and take all the color away. That's better, huh?

 

[Tom Barr]

The more blood red and freaky mauve color, the better.


The Green was interesting, I did not feel weird using it, but yes, it did take a lot of the appeal away.
There's a few biotypes, such as magenta, a few different forms of narrow leaf, then R. butterfly and a couple of others floating around.

Finding a new type or color is typically a good thing, I'd like more nice yellow plant leaf species.

You can hit plants like they do with Arabidopsis with radiation and mutant the seeds of aquatic plants, then see what is viable out of that. Of those, say 10 seeds out of say 1 million exposed, a few million later you end up with interesting mutants.
GMO type mutant plants for the aquarium. I think this has already been done, but they have not said anything about it to the hobbyist.

If you could get a knock out that regulates the pigments and amplify the yellow or red color pathways, then it would be a hot seller. Hard to keep your intellectual property like Monsanto does one corn, soy and dozen of crops. Aquatic plants are just too easy to grow.

 

[krandall]

If you could get a knock out that regulates the pigments and amplify the yellow or red color pathways, then it would be a hot seller. Hard to keep your intellectual property like Monsanto does one corn, soy and dozen of crops. Aquatic plants are just too easy to grow.

Soy and corn are easy to grow too, unless you want to be able to coat them with herbicides! (don't get me started )

 

[Tom Barr]

That's why organic markets and farmer local markets are a very good thing.

 

[krandall]

That's where I shop!