# Red Tiger Lotus not, err, red?



## Anthony (Jan 11, 2005)

The same thing happened to me. I have seen pics of Red Tigers for sale that weren't red at all. They were dark green and brown looking. I just bought a lotus from a lfs that is completely pink!


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

It is a little misleading to call the plant a red tiger lotus, but apparently this species come in another color which is a lime green.... So these lotuses are red compared to the green ones.


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## shalu (Jan 16, 2003)

Does it look like mine here:








Not blood red, but still quite red.

The color depends on nutrient/light levels. Gets redder in good light. Pink color is due to nutrient deficiency, I have seen that in my tank.


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## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

My leaves are only a week old, but the are green for sure at the moment. Not nearly red like your pic!

I got mine from aquariumplants.com Again, not slamming them, but maybe they were out of stock on the "red tiger lotus" and sent me green ones -- after all, I only ordered 1 and they sent me 2 bulbs, probably to make up for it.

I ordered this:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/cgi-bin/cart/cw723.html

But mine is looking more like this at the moment:

http://www.aquariumplants.com/cgi-bin/cart/ww722.html

Still, a nice plant.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

If your leaves are coming out green then they will stay green, Red Lotus bulbs will start out red/maroon/brown at the very first sight of a leaf but get better color with age and good nutrients. You can help them color up. 
At the defense of the seller they have no way of knowing unless the bulbs are started by them first but then they are very sensitive to ship. Thats why normally you get 8-10 bare bulbs and usually get a mix of greens/reds in the end and you decide which to keep. 
Its a 50/50 shot on their part to send a bare bulb and call it a "red one" unless they are from a red mother plant of their own in a tank. The greens IMO are a great looking plant too. roud:


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## shalu (Jan 16, 2003)

btw, I also got the red one in pic from aquariumplants.com


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## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

thanks guys, this is good info!

yeh, I still like the green ones and it makes sense if the bulbs have no identifying traits. does a lotus actually produce addtional bulbs as it spreads? or does it just spread by runners?


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

Mine has a reddish sheen to it, so I still have hope it can turn red.


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## shalu (Jan 16, 2003)

The mother bulb will keep producing new sprouts over time. Each sprouted growth point can be separately from the mother bulb after it gains some size.

Urkevitz, I bet yours is actually the red one. Give it bright light and it should turn red.


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

I think maybe a lack of Fe and micros might be part of the problem. I have not been dosing them too often because they cloud up my water.


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## dissident (Oct 15, 2003)

Urkevitz said:


> I think maybe a lack of Fe and micros might be part of the problem. I have not been dosing them too often because they cloud up my water.


I got some of the same bulbs from on of the same online vendors mentioned in this thread. They are not as red as some of the lotus I have had, they are more green with a red shine, not the DEEP RED that I was looking for, or most people are looking for. The leaves seem a lot more fragile too, and tend to grow to the surface rather then stay close to the bottom, even with 4.2 w/gal...

I dose Fe heavy in my tank (water column and substrate) and had no change in appearance. I am ready to tare them our and find some place that has what I was looking for.


---
I have made several orders from aquariumplants.com and have had nothing but good things to say about them, so dont take my post as a bash against any online sellers that have been mentioned/aluded to :icon_conf


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## TeeItUp (Mar 18, 2004)

motifone said:


> I got mine from aquariumplants.com Again, not slamming them, but maybe they were out of stock on the "red tiger lotus" and sent me green ones -- after all, I only ordered 1 and they sent me 2 bulbs, probably to make up for it.


I think that is their modus operandi because your story is exactly like mine including sending me “more” green bulbs.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

dissident said:


> The leaves seem a lot more fragile too, and tend to grow to the surface rather then stay close to the bottom, even with 4.2 w/gal...


 Here is the thing with a Lotus plant... once you let one leaf hit the water surface, which btw Im also guilty as charged with my first one's, they will continually grow stems fast and straight up to the surface!! No stoppin it.
Dont ask me why but this is very common. It seems to put the plants into a different growing mode. 
I have grown lotus's on 3 different occasions (greens and reds) and all were grown in a 3+ watt lighted tanks and only once did I have this growth pattern occur and it was the first time when I thought how nice it looked with the "lily pad" effect. 
This type of growth will never stop once 1 leaf hits the surface. You must keep them pruned for a bushy , low growing effect.


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

My lotus is in full lily pad mode, however I have yet to let one hit the surface. I need to buy something to trim the lotus so I don't have to stick my hand in the tank every day.


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## Anthony (Jan 11, 2005)

A bought a lotus last week that was pink. It has since gotten yellow, but has already put out 3 new stems. I have 3.25wpg, and know the tank that it was in did not have high wattage. All other plants are growing like weeds. Is it still adjusting to my tank?


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## Robert H (Apr 3, 2003)

If you bought them as bulbs only, with no growth, its really impossible to know if they are red or green until they grow leaves. If they were red, they would be red from the first tiny little leaf, however there are green leaves with red spots and the spots may develop later.


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## bastalker (Dec 8, 2004)

I got a lotus from Marcel a couple of months ago, an the leaves were all red. Although the plant is growing great, an has trippled the amount of leaves it once had, the leaves are looking more green than red. I have not had a stem reach the surfcace yet. It just stays low an multiplies rather quickly!!

There is a hint of red in the leaves, but they are looking more green than red right now. I dose the correct micros, an macros, maybe its the low light I have in the tank. I dunno.


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## Anthony (Jan 11, 2005)

Hey, do you guys seperate your lotus' from the bulbs?


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## Opiesilver (Nov 3, 2003)

I buy about 300,000 of these bulbs every 2 weeks. Our suppliers try their best to just harvest red ones but even they get them confused sometimes. We try to have about 100 sprouted for our own use all the time but it seems we ship them faster than we grow them. I would estimate that 80% of all the tiger lotus bulbs on the market pass through our warehouse at one point or another.

Sometime this fall we plan on building on to our warehouse and adding another 10 to 15 nymphaea species to sell to the general public. I've already got over 160 more species of true aquatic plants lined up to add to our offerings in the next couple months.


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## Opiesilver (Nov 3, 2003)

Anthony said:


> Hey, do you guys separate your lotus' from the bulbs?


I just pop them off the bulb with my fingers right at the base where it comes out of the bulb.


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## motifone (Nov 21, 2004)

Couple questions:

So, if I detach the plant from the bulb, does the plant still put forth new leaves?

Does the detached bulb, when placed elsewhere, produce another plant?

Lastly, is there anyway to train a Lotus plant to stop putting leaves to the surface. Both my Lotus plants have a few leaves that have stopped mid-tank height (since adding more light), but generally the new leaves are shooting to the surface as lilly pads.

thanks
steve


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