Help with foxtail plants

[Orchid]

My ten gal pygmy gourami tank was overidden with foxtail, I don't know what species this is but it looks like a rugged, thinner version of cabomba that is multibranched. This plant completely filled up the top ten inches of water, I pulled out five beautiful, large clumps of the stuff and transferred some of them to my 55 gal discus tank. The temp is the same in both tanks but the plants I just moved are dying. The clumps I left in the ten gal tank are still as lush as ever. I've seen this plant do this at pet stores shortly after it is ordered in. I do a 10% water change in the 55 gal tank often and very rarely in the garoumi tank, but I do add straight RO water right onto the plants and this never seems to harm them. The light is slightly less in the bigger tank. So does anyone know why these plants are dying in their new tank? Is it pH, lighting, the frequent water changes, or is this a sensitive plant?

I have another question as well, my red crypts grow well and then all of a sudden rot away. This seems to correspond to a water change, but I have some green crypts in the same tank that never seem to do this (knock on wood). I beleive they are both the same species. The crypts in my ten gallon tank don't rot away when I add RO water. Does anyone know why my red ones quickly rot away like this? Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[tjudy]

:? Is your 'foxtail' the plant hornwort? If so, it is very sensitive to chemical and temperature change. The bigger problem is that it make a heck of a mess when it falls apart.

 

[2la]

Actually, foxtail is typically a Myriophyllum species (hornwort is Ceratophyllum demersum), and I've found both these species to be quite hardy given decent lighting, although the first species tends to collect debris in and algae on its leaves. However, even the hardiest of plants can sometimes shed their old leaves when transferred to a new environment with conditions different from the original (micro- and macronutrient levels, lighting levels and spectra, substrate, neighboring plants, etc.). As long as the tops are still putting out healthy leaves, the plants should be fine.

Hornwort IME is about as bulletproof a plant there is, along with anubias. Weird how experiences vary so widely...

 

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

Hornwort IME is about as bulletproof a plant there is, along with anubias. Weird how experiences vary so widely...

My recent experience with hornwort wasn't very good, although
I've used it in the past with no problem. More recently I added
some to my apisto tanks only to have all of it drop its needles.
Some from the same batch is doing just fine in tanks with lower
temps.

 

[farm41]

How warm do you keep your apisto tanks?

 

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

I keep my apisto tanks at 80F - not by chioce tho. I have a small
fishroom that I built into a nook in my garage. Keeping it heated
with a space heater this winter and the tanks in the top row (apisto)
get to about 80F while the tanks in the row below (fry) are at 75F.
Maybe I need to add a small fan to keep the ambient air temp
constant in the room.

 

[Orchid]

Hornwort, that is also what I have seen it named. One of the clumps that I moved has completely dissentegrated into a collapsed heap. The other is dissentegrating a bit slower, but I believe it is a lost cause. Everything I have ever read about this plant indicates that it is hardy, but it only seems so in my 10 gal gourami tank (incicentally, I have the same exact experience with elodea). Both tanks are at a similar temp-82 degrees. It was such a lovely filler for the bare spots. I guess I need to find another filler besides cabomba, anacharis, rotalia wallichii, elodea, hornwort/foxtail, my diandra is OK but not lush. Any ideas about which bunch plant is a good filler, perhaps one that does fine in 2 watts per gallon and can handle the higher discus tank temps?