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Tips for Staurogyne Repens

M

Michael W

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Joined
13 May 2013
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878
Hi guys, first of all I'm new to the forums so nice meeting you all.

Just yesterday I went a brought a pot of Staurogyne Repens and from a bit of reading it appears to be classed as an easy to care for plant. I just want to hear some of your experiences with this plant and if there are any advice yous can give me I will greatly appreciate it.

Here are some details of the tank I keep them in:

The tank is a 30L shrimp tank with a 14 watt T8 bulb with duckweed on the surface of the water. I do not dose ferts but plant to buy Neutro+, I do not use CO2 but could potentially make a DIY one as I could not afford pressurised ones. The substrate is just plain old gravel and the plants in the tanks include anubias, narrowleaf java ferns and Fissidens Fontanus. I'm not really trying to make those amazing carpets of Staurogyne Repens but instead looking to keep a healthy stem plant and if by chance am able to grow this well enough to make a carpet I will call it a bonus.

Thanks in advance,

Michael.
 
Hi Michael and welcome to the forum!:wave: Firstly, Staurogyne is a great plant and when kept in the right conditions can make a great looking carpet in next to no time! Once it starts growing you will begin to think it is getting a little bit tall. You simply cut the tops off and replant them in the substrate. If dosing decent nutrients they will quickly develop roots and grow to have their tops cut off! The plants will also shoot smaller stems out of the main stem. I'll go and take a couple of snaps to illustrate what I have been saying!🙂
 
NanoJames said:
Hi Michael and welcome to the forum!:wave: Firstly, Staurogyne is a great plant and when kept in the right conditions can make a great looking carpet in next to no time! Once it starts growing you will begin to think it is getting a little bit tall. You simply cut the tops off and replant them in the substrate. If dosing decent nutrients they will quickly develop roots and grow to have their tops cut off! The plants will also shoot smaller stems out of the main stem. I'll go and take a couple of snaps to illustrate what I have been saying!🙂
Click to expand...

Hi there, thanks for the quick reply. Do you think this plants need CO2 for it to do well? I've never had experience with CO2 in a planted tank before and I would love to hear how well this plant will do without CO2. From my limited knowledge apparently lighting is not super important as plants will adapt as long as there sufficient nutrients and CO2, please correct me if I'm wrong as I've only had experience with low maintenance plants.

Michael.
 
Sorry, I've been sorting out a minor shrimp disaster so I haven't been able to get photos. Tomorrow!😀 I started out with CO2 and it spread like wildfire, maybe even too quick! I also used to dose Tropica Premium fertiliser and it loved that also. Although for my shrimps health I stopped about 1 month ago. It has done absolutely fine! I haven't put any chemicals in the tank since and it is still ticking along nicely. So it is down to you if you want to get it going with CO2 and then stopping like I did. Lighting is not really that important but I have about 0.5 watts per litre and that grows it a little too quickly in my opinion so lower lighting is fine!:thumbup:
Cheers
 
Hope you fix the disaster, take your time with the photos will look forward to them. I'll see how well it grows and start adding things to the tank as I go along. I think I'll start with ferts then move to CO2 if needs be as I have yet to learn enough about using CO2 in a planted tank to mess around with it.

Thanks,
Michael.
 
You'll be fine mate, if you're worried about it then just post on this thread!🙂 I've got my shrimp sorted, 4 Sakura grade RCS which were put in the tank on Saturday stuck in a filter!😱 All still alive though...🙄
 
Hi Michael
Sorry for the wait for the pictures!:lol: I took a few of the Stauro in my 20 litre nano which is about 30 cm long. All of this Staurogyne was from 2 pots. Just constantly trimming and replanting!😱 P.S. that is a Catappa leaf or Almond leaf lying on the Stauro!
dscf1988gg.jpg
dscf1987h.jpg

And I took this photo to show how you prepare trimmings for planting. Just cut the bottom 2-3 sets of leaves off and push them in with tweezers. Sometimes I find it helpful to grab their tops with the tweezers instead of trying to push the in and then trying to pull the tweezers out from the side!🙂
The one on the right is just a trimming and the one on the left is ready for planting:
dscf1989j.jpg
 
Great pictures, very helpful. I'll try to take a picture of mine, I don't think my ones look too nice as I believe at some point they were grown emmersed as the stems looks a bit reddish. But I do see new growth so thats a good start.
 
My bad, I've just noticed in the trimmings photo I've labelled them wrong... The one on the left is just a trimming and the one on the right is ready for planting!😕 Please do upload photos, I'd love to see what you got!🙂
 
Okey so here are the photos. Let me explain the reasons why the Repens are planted in the following pictures. My substrate is too shallow so I decided to plant it in a pot to stop if from floating as I have some hard working trumpet snails. Its ebi gold shrimp substrates left over from my crystal red tank capped with gravel.

photostream


Edit: Do you think I should trim them right now?
 
Hi Michael
Good info and I'm sure your Stauro will do well!🙂 However, your picture isn't doing so well!😉 Did you upload it through one of the websites like Flickr, ImageShack etc? I think there is a guide on it in the technical part of forum somewhere.🙂
 
Hi guys there is a nice thread about staurogyne on the forum I can't link it because I am on my phone. But the title is
Tips for the perfect staurogyne repens carpet. Like that you can make on research on it !! Read trough it's very interesting you even have some advice from Tom Barr.
Here is a pic of my staugoryne it's in the tank since 3 weeks now after a long trip from France to Congo.
I have try to plant a stem horizontally and it's working very well even with the staurogyne Porto Velho ! You can also put it on wood or rock like an Anubia or a fern.
5umypa2u.jpg

Cheers and read that thread you ll like it
 
Here it is: Tips on the perfect Staurogyne repens carpet | UK Aquatic Plant Society

@NanoJames: very useful info you have posted. What would be the issue with leaving the bottom 2 or 3 sets of leaves on the plant before inserting it into the gravel? I find that leaving them intact can help keep the plant in place until it develops roots. But then again, I am lousy at planting, and have never learned to use tweezers.
 
jart said:
@NanoJames: very useful info you have posted. What would be the issue with leaving the bottom 2 or 3 sets of leaves on the plant before inserting it into the gravel? I find that leaving them intact can help keep the plant in place until it develops roots. But then again, I am lousy at planting, and have never learned to use tweezers.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot, jart!🙂 There is nothing wrong with leaving the bottom sets of leaves on. I just find that the stem stays in place better without them on!:lol: I find that the leaves often push the stem up again so if you can take off the bottom leaves you just fill the substrate around the plant and it should stay in place a little better. You should definitely think about tweezers, they definitely make life a lot easier. Especially when it comes to carpeting plants!
Cheers🙂
 
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