# Plants



## piranha 13 (Feb 16, 2003)

I bought my first live plant today. It's an Amazon Sword plant. My question is how do I take care of it?


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

Plant it, and enjoy :smile:

Well, you could buy a liquid plant fertilizer, iron extract to feed the plant, an expensive CO2-system or whatnot, but as long as it gets sufficient light and it is planted firmly into the substrate, it will be fine, I guess. There's a chance your p's will chew on it, sometimes leading to the plant's deeath, but I don't know what to do about that or to avoid that...


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## SnowCichlid. (Jan 10, 2003)

you can buy stuff to aid your plants growth but with my experience it is not even needed. As long as you have a good cycled tank and have adequate light then your plant will do well.
One thing to note many times when getting new plants the leaves that are there now will more than likly fall off and float around in your tank, this usually happens with new plants, once it is rooted you will notice new leaves being formed, these ones will stick around for you :smile:
...also make sure you root the plant well into the subtrae, or it could be floating at the top of your tnak the next day


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## piranha 13 (Feb 16, 2003)

So do I abosoulutly need food for the plant or can it survive without food? How long should I leave my light on for?


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## sccavee (Feb 11, 2003)

I have swords and I have never added anything to the tank to feed them. I just use lights and they have grown to the top of the tank.


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## epson2k (Mar 15, 2003)

You don't necessarily need food for your plants, its only a supplement. Amazon swords, like sccavee is implying, are very low maintenance. This is fairly true. They don't need much, 40+ watts in a 18-24" deep tank would be fine. Just make sure you have at least 3-4" of gravel so they can root up and send runners.


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## SnowCichlid. (Jan 10, 2003)

piranha 13 said:


> So do I abosoulutly need food for the plant or can it survive without food? How long should I leave my light on for?


 You can purchase some plant grow if you would like, It is not 100% essential in all aquatiq plant life.
so you are going with the amazon _*sword (Echinodorus amazonicus)*_
-this plant origonates from brazil.
-needs moderate care
-needs rich soil, so good amount of subbtrae plus the enhancing media would help








-needs high levels of light, so leave the bulbs on a bit longer


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## GARGOYLE (Feb 12, 2003)

nicely put sc, I have amazons in the living room tank, and whenever new leaves are well on there way and have their own roots, I put the new ones in my tank. hehe I have a breedeing pair of amazon swords. LOL


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

piranha 13 said:


> So do I abosoulutly need food for the plant or can it survive without food? How long should I leave my light on for?


 I bought a bottle of Tetra Plantamin (or whatever it's called) when I had just setup my tank, and when I added a lot of new ones to give them a good start, but I don't know if it made any difference.


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## readingbabelfish (Jan 16, 2003)

i have a 55g with five 3 inch rbp. I have three amazon swords in there with a high compact light system producing 260 watts. Just in case i ever make it into a salt water tank or planted tank. My plants are growing like crazy and do not even need much gravel, maybe an inch and a half. The p's love the plants and use them for hiding if they need to. Mine have even gotten used to the light being on a timer for twelve hours and swim to the front of the tank when i walk by. they are very active during the day also.


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