aponogeton crispus

[vyberman]

I got myself some of this plant last year and love it.
It started dying back a month ago, so i took it out to rest it in cooler water as prescribed by my books.

Now its in there, it has pushed a kind of seed pod out of the water. It had this when i bought it but died back once under water.

The question is, how do i harvest the seeds and grow them? I would love to have a few more of them, and i like not paying for stuff :D

[fish_r]

Leave the seeds to mature on the spike. When the spike starts to weaken, and hopefully the seeds are almost ready to fall off, I place a small plastic container with a small hole in the bottom around the flower spike (with the flower spike through the hole in the bottom and Tape the container to an edge of the aquarium. (strawberry container bottoms are usually good... I plug any additional holes with filter wool.)

This is because once the seeds fall off the spike naturally, the seeds will initially float for an hour or so, until their outer 'coat' falls off. They will then sink to the bottom of the container - where they are pretty easy to spot. The seeds will come off over a few days - you can leave the seeds for a few days in the container, until they are all off the stem

Once you have your seeds, I usually place them in a small container of sand, or sand over potting mix. Just drop the seeds on top of this mixture, and add about 1 inch of water. I then place a small piece of glass over the container (to reduce evaporation) and place the container in a warm and semi bright place - I put mine next to a tank, and let the tank light (CF) shine on it.

I then basically forget about them for a month - when they are often about 1 inch tall with 3-4 leaves - then treat them as ordinary aponogetons. if I have too many I leave some there - they seem to stay that size for months unless you transplant them.

[fish_r]

P.S. i copied and pasted this info from another forum, but cant remember the nic of the person that wrote it other wise i would have given the credit to them.

[vyberman]

thats awesome, thanks loads :)

any idea what temp it should be?

[fish_r]

around 26-28 should be good, but 26 is a bit low if u have discus in the same tank...