# Rotala Indica (Or is it?) growing weird



## ninoboy (Jan 26, 2004)

Nothing you can do to stop it. Yes, you can just cut the top and replant. It will take a while before they grow those roots from intrenodes. I found that R. Indica also doesn't survive too much pruning and should replant the top after a few pruning. They'll stay alive but will grow weird and mix directions. Out of all my stem plants, this R. Indica is the one that grow most weird roots from their internodes.


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## Rolo (Dec 10, 2003)

Something tells me that I should have striped the whole stem of leaves and laids it flat, horizontally within the substrate. Is this correct? I noticed, besides the roots growing down, that new shoots are growing up from the internodes.


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## ninoboy (Jan 26, 2004)

I've never tried that.


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

Is it the rotala I sent you? did you plant the fontinalis moss I sent?


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## 2la (Aug 18, 2002)

Rolo737 said:


> Something tells me that I should have striped the whole stem of leaves and laids it flat, horizontally within the substrate. Is this correct? I noticed, besides the roots growing down, that new shoots are growing up from the internodes.


No, it'll do this no matter what you do. You have a normal, healthy plant in a normal, healthy tank. Once R. rotundifolia is tall enough to achieve a certain level of light intensity, it has a natural tendency to propagate itself by growing horizontally and setting off offshoots at each internode, not unlike pearl grass. You should see the _green_ variant (or subspecies) of R. rotundifolia: It actually inherently curves horizontally and then downward in a big arch--a nice type of cascading effect.

In any case, I wouldn't recommend 'fighting' with the plant--it's too laborious to be enjoyable (unless you're a masochist who's into that kind of thing). If you don't like it's growth characteristics, I'd suggest using a more suitable species. Something like a Bacopa or Lysimachia species might be a reasonable replacement; they have very little tendency to grow horizontally (completely submersed, that is).


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## Rolo (Dec 10, 2003)

Urkevitz - Yes this is the R. Indica you sent me. About the fontinalias moss, I didn't really plant it, but let itsink into the tank...I actually wanted to see if it would plant itself. It didn't but actually still has been growing. .

2la - Wow, thanks for the reply, it seemed like you have seen my R. Indica yourself. At first it was growing kinda diagonally towards the surface, then these past few days it started to bend back towards the substate. There definately is the green subspecies growing on the end of each stem, it almost doesn't seem like the same plant; small green leaves very close together - incontrast to the bright pink larger leaves lower down stem. 

You said it will propagate when it has reached a higher level and greater light intensity - is it unusal that mine are doing it now and only about 3.5"-4" long?

I won't be contorting the plant to growing straight since it adds a nice variety as is. The horizontal propagation however kinda concerns me. This is only in a 20 gallon tank and there isn't much room to expand. Does anyone have any picture too share of their entire R. indica? I would like to get idea of its size.


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## 2la (Aug 18, 2002)

Rolo737 said:


> 2la - Wow, thanks for the reply, it seemed like you have seen my R. Indica yourself. At first it was growing kinda diagonally towards the surface, then these past few days it started to bend back towards the substate. There definately is the green subspecies growing on the end of each stem, it almost doesn't seem like the same plant; small green leaves very close together - incontrast to the bright pink larger leaves lower down stem.


Actually I would not be surprised if the green variant, currently formally known as _R_. sp. 'Green', is a completely separate species from _R. rotundifolia _(forgive my personal insistence on calling it that rather than referring to it as _R. indica_, which I'm not yet convinced is circulating very much in the hobby today) given how distinct the former's growth is (arching stems; leaves always remain slender and bright green, never turning red no matter the intensity of light). IMO there is no chance that _R_. sp. 'Green' is growing as offshoots from your _R. rotundifolia_, anymore than you'd have an offshoot of _Anubias barteri _var. nana growing off the rhizome of _Anubias barteri _var. barteri or any other anubias species. 



Rolo737 said:


> You said it will propagate when it has reached a higher level and greater light intensity - is it unusal that mine are doing it now and only about 3.5"-4" long?


No, I don't think so. I don't know how intense your lighting is, but the bottom line is that your plant is happy and is looking to propagate in its normal submersed fashion.



Rolo737 said:


> Does anyone have any picture too share of their entire R. indica? I would like to get idea of its size.


Not an answer to your exact request, but here's a website comparing _R_. sp. 'Green' versus _R. rotundifolia_. Unfortunately, the 'arched' growth typical of the former isn't on very good display in any of the photos, so here are a couple of my own (note that the leaves are longer and remain more uniformly slender than _R. rotundifolia_'s):


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## Rolo (Dec 10, 2003)

hmm. 2la - I really don't know what plant I seem to have now. I did searches on both R. Rotundifolia and R. Indica, and I get alot of pitures of staight growing, green stem plants, nothing that arches and is close to the pink/red/brown color of my plants BUT, there were a few pictures lumped into the R. Indica search that look exactly like mine...

R. Indica? Looks like mine.
This one definately looks like mine. The color is the most similar of these three pictures.
Then at the same time this links looks kind of close to my plants and was labeled as R. Rotundifolia...
R. Rotundiafolia?.

So if anything, I would guess that I have R. Indica and not R. Rotundifolia. Or am I completely wrong, and were the pictures mislabled? Why were there so many picutures of straight growing, green stem plants, and then a few totally different pictures of arching, pinkish plants in the same search for R. Indica? Urkevitz, are you sure these clippings you sent are R. Indica?

After rexamining the plants again, I would agree with you in not calling the leaves on the newest internodes a subspecies (as you were calling R. 'Green'). The green leaves became narrower and pinker just as the leaves farther down the stem. My tank is not very intensense, 55W GE 9325k on a 16inch high 20 gallon. I'm very surprised that the plants are showing such pink color and only a few mere inches off the substrate.


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## ninoboy (Jan 26, 2004)

Hehe :lol: That plant is just weird man. I bought one bunch and plant them in 3 different tanks. All of them look diference. One is totally green. Another is pink at the top, and the other one is all red or pink from the bottom. They all grew straight in the beginning and grow every where else after pruning.


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

I am pretty sure it is just rotala indica, I originally got them from Petsmart. Mine seem to always be changing color depending on how often I add nitrate. Also the clippings I sent you were growing in 4.6 watts per gallon directly on the surface.


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## 2la (Aug 18, 2002)

Rolo737 said:


> Or am I completely wrong, and were the pictures mislabled?


You're not wrong, but most likely the pictures are mislabeled. This was an error that was propagated long ago and just seems to persist. Some websites list them as synonyms, hence the confusion you experienced during your Internet search. They are, however, distinct species. This website and I believe Kasselmann's Aquarium Plants (which I don't have) contain the most comprehensive information about their differences that I've been able to find to date, but that's not exactly saying much. In any case, if you come across any references that claim them to be synonyms, you know to be a bit skeptical about the information contained therein.


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## fedge (Mar 4, 2004)

My Indica does that exact same thing.. other posting... now that Ive seen this post it all makes more sense though... Can't wait till a couple of months from now when it REALLY fills my corner in!!!


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