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Permalink Reply by Rizal on February 15, 2012 at 9:28am

patience is virtue.....all lotus species are not fast growers.....questions how long you had them?what are the colours of the leaves.....are all in full red or some still green with spec red patch?

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Permalink Reply by Fabrigas O'brian on February 15, 2012 at 12:05pm

ive had just the one scince the middle of jan the old leaves are purplish and the new leaves are redish and get greener towards the centre with deep red spots

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Permalink Reply by Rizal on February 16, 2012 at 9:53am

The African tiger lotus, as its name suggests, can be found throughout the rivers of Africa where it can grow to a height of well over 24 inches and cover twice as much space in width. This potential growth is certainly not confined to wild populations of this plant. Even in your home aquarium, the Tiger Lotus can dominate the aquascape. Large, rounded heart-shaped, lily-like leaves sprout from small, round bulbs. These bulbs can also produce more bulbs. The leaves may take one of two color variants, a deep red or a bright green. Each color variant has dark spotting and speckling on the leaves. As the leaves emerge, some of the foliage stays low, suspended in the water column, while some leaves reach for the surface. The leaves that reach the top form floating lily pads. If you want to keep the leaves from reaching the surface, simply prune those leaves back. If you don’t mind seeing the lotus pads floating at the surface, allowing this growth may allow the plant to bloom. Like others in the Nymphaea genus, the Tiger Lotus can produce a beautiful and aromatic bloom, not unlike the hardy water lilies that you see in ornamental ponds.  This species typically displays a white blossom with a yellow center. In an open-topped aquarium, it is a really beautiful sight to see a large lotus in full bloom.

There is a down side to allowing the plant to stretch out. With the expanding leaves and rate at which this plant can consume nutrients (which is very quickly), you may actually have a little trouble getting other plants to grow in the vicinity of a healthy Tiger Lotus.  To complicate matters, the Tiger Lotus produces a phenolic compound that can retard the growth of other plants around it.  So if you want to keep this beast of a plant, you will want to provide it with ample room to grow. I have seen this plant take up a full third of a 170 gallon aquarium. A truly impressive plant when given the chance to thrive!

This plants needs are relatively easy to meet. A nutrient rich substrate and a good liquid iron ferts are two things that will really make your lotus grow. Lighting can be moderate to intense. I have grown this plant under metal halides and power compact lighting with equal success. It seems that really accelerated growth rates are achieved when bright intense lighting and lots of iron are supplied in tandem. If the simple needs for this plant can be met, the Tiger Lotus will prove to be one of the more stout and robust plants in your aquarium.

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Permalink Reply by Fabrigas O'brian on February 16, 2012 at 1:03pm

thats just the prob! i whant it to make lilly pads and it is 100% welcome to take over my tank if it whants to and it was the most costly plant out of all my current colection, it gets some natural light as well as the aquriums low light with florite sub and  iron boron and potassium ferts btw what would cause a tiger louters to get holes in the leaves

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Permalink Reply by Connor on February 18, 2012 at 12:09pm

bro i have the exact same problem but i found that the closer you get your plant bulb to the surface the quicker it grows so get it closer to the lights asap and let it sit there untill its roots develop and you can feed the plant with the dirt

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Permalink Reply by Fabrigas O'brian on February 18, 2012 at 6:41pm

Please read the top... This plant doesn't have a bulb and it's planted in flourite

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