Mangrove status

About ten days ago I moved the "best" mangrove in a more shadowed area, hoping that, if the black spots on the leafs are caused by excess of light, this will reduce the impact. At the same time, I set into the ground the only root, which shows today a marked increase in diameter. I added a fragment of fertilizer tablet in the vicinity. The gem with the next two leaves is on its way, so let's hope for the best.

The second best, still without leaves after the last couple fell, is however still alive, as I can see from the roots, which have clearly taken grip in the ground, and from the tip, which, covered with the last dead cuticule, shows inside a tiny gem.

The "bad" mangrove, showing no sign of life whatsoever, and planted in the substrate as a last chance a number of weeks ago: today I dared to move the sand a bit to check the roots, and they are alive!

What is a good mangrove?

Two of the mangrove seedlings I collected in Brazil, in two different locations, are doing acceptably well. The first one exhibits a lovely crown of 6 leaves, grown very close to each other vertically, which I believe has to do with the light (too much? The plant is indeed very close to my 2x38 W 6500 K. Or too less?). The roots, however, appear underdeveloped in comparison, with one extremely long branch only, whereas all the others are likely dead. Just today I saw a new one appearing, though!.

Nice crown of leaves. Very close to each other, though, and I don't know if this implies light problems. The bad news are, the oldest starts showing black spots (clearly visible on the lowest, to the left).

 

Strange root development? One more branche spotted today!

The second one shows a great crown of roots (but only a couple are really alive), which I recently decided to have touch ground, in the hope this would help developing the leaves: these had started growing quite well initially (as I recall, a first pair, that fell soon, then a second pair, which went down even sooner, and a third, which lasted nothing), but at the moment are as below. Note that the new gem is once again darkening.

One can count at least three accrretion rings, corresponding to as many couples of leaves. Notice the distance between them, showing that the leaves came down faster and faster. The new gem is already blackening.

Video session!

An archer show in my tank, but also a show of the great opportunism of the rainbows, who are able to run to the fallen fly much faster than the archers.

 

Less action here, but I love the performance of one of the rainbow females, at 01:37, darting from the depths and able to dead-stop before hitting the surface; the following slow-motion repetition shows some details of her ability of using the fins. Enjoy!