# Amazon sword questions



## joe the pleco (Jul 16, 2007)

*I bought this plant a little while ago.*

* My LFS did not do a very good job of packing up my plant (they just put it in a carrier bag) it wasn't sealed. *

* So half way through my journey home i began to notice the leaves were beginning to curl up and were quite dry at the tips of the plant, now it is in my aquarium it has gotten a little better but in places the leaves are turning/turned Brown. Will they go back to full health or deteriorate from here on?*

* Also i was just wondering if you would mind giving me some information IYE on this plant.*
*Does it grow out of the water?*
*How would you trim it to keep it in the water?*

*Thanks alot:biggrin:*


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## footbeat (Sep 16, 2004)

I've kept a few species of Echinodorus and they are very hardy plants. I've had one grow from a decrepit barely green nub with rotten roots that I picked up from the local pet store. 

Give them some root tabs since they are root feeders. They will survive and even grow a bit even in low light. Moderate to high light with CO2 will give you outrageous growth, but is not necessary for survival.

If you don't have a giant aquarium, this plant will bust your tank eventually. It grows both in and out of water. Usually when you buy the plant, the leaves have a shorter, more oval shape, with a long stem about twice as long as the leaf is long. These leaves are grown out the water. They will usually slowly turn yellow, then brown and die off while new longer submerged leaves with shorter stems begin to grow. These leaves are narrow and long; sword shaped. You can just cut off the dying leaves.

If your sword plant sends out a flower stem, this will grow out of the water. If you push it back into the water, it will grow small sword plants that you can then push into the substrate when their roots become developed.

I usually don't trim this plant. I just rip it out when it gets too big. I break up the plant and put a small part of it back in the tank, and the cycle starts again. I'm actually getting tired of this plant. They look nice, but the roots are well developed and ripping them up causes quite the mess.


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## joe the pleco (Jul 16, 2007)

Thanks footbeat


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## Daniel*Swords (May 8, 2006)

Unfortunately, the affected leaves will just deteriorate from here on. Some might hang on for some time. No matter, it will grow new leaves fast after it has rooted itself decently (in say, 2 weeks). You can prune away the old ones as the new unfold.

The Amazon swords don't grow out of water easily, esp. not out of a tank. So no need to prune it in order for maintaining it submersed. They become big, some 2 feet high and wide... So you might want to prune it to keep it smaller. Sometimes, only quite radical pruning is effective. For tips, see here.
Good luck!

^^Got ninjaed there...


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## Ukrainetz (Jul 11, 2007)

The amazon sword is a very hardy plant....I cannot kill it no matter how many times I tried (JK)  . It will grow until it reaches the water surface, and then the leaves will just spread out on top of the water. You have to trim it..the best place is cutting individual leaves off at the bottom (or you can carefully pinch them off with your nail). Get rid of the affected leaves, and it will grow new ones. If you have a lot of plants in your tank, the sword will not grow as fast due to competition for nutrients. On their own, I found it grows very fast, and will quickly take over the tank.


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## masYPSI (Aug 10, 2006)

Also I have noticed that when you disturb it (or take it home from the lfs) it has a tendency to "drop" leaves. This is a common happening and people always think that they killed it. Myself included.:icon_bigg


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## joe the pleco (Jul 16, 2007)

Ah thankyou was wondering about that.


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## cavemanf16 (Jul 5, 2007)

I agree with these other posters about trimming a tall Amazon sword. Good looking plant, but they can get big and out of control quickly. I prefer to snip off the really tall leaves at the base both to get rid of too much plant, and to allow the smaller, more algae free leaves to grow out until they too need removed. The whole plant can still make for a nice hiding area for smaller fish which is why I've never totally removed mine.


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