Help with Hygrophila Corymbosa

[Mary B]

Hello plant experts, I hope you can help me!

It's been almost two months since I ordered Hygrophila Corymbosa from an online store. When it arrived, despite chilled and insulated packaging, many of the leaves were rotted from heat. After I planted the two stems, more leaves fell off until both stems had about four leaves each. The stems also kept rotting away one node at a time.

As you can see from the picture they're doing much better - they eventually grew decent roots and started putting out leaves from the center. However, the right plant's stem has rotted away down to the next node again so it's sort of floating held in place by roots. They have also started to lose a few of the older leaves, with small lacy holes and then breaking and falling apart. Also I understand this is supposed to be a fast-growing plant to the point that it's called a tank buster, but in two months I feel like it should have made more progress.

My questions are: Should I try to plant the stem again or is that risking rot? Would root tabs help? Would you recommend a change to fertilizer or lighting? Do some plants just not do well in certain conditions and it's not meant to be?

Tank info: I have a Fluval Spec V with the built-in light (I'm told it's considered about the low end of medium light for aquariums). The light is on for 8 hours a day with a break in between, and there's a lot of natural light in the room - I have to cover it for an hour every morning to block out direct sun. No CO2. My substrate is Fluval Stratum. I was using Seachem Flourish but switched to Easy Green a couple weeks ago. It's stocked with 3 guppies, 10 cherry shrimp, and a handful of ramshorns. My other plants are generally doing great - pearlweed, ludwigia, frogbit and bacopa, but the java fern and red root floaters aren't too happy. I live in the Southwest so I assume my water is pretty hard though I don't have a way to measure it. The pH is just above 7 since the Stratum helps bring it down. I don't do water changes often since it is very stable and nitrates are always less than 10. However I know there are some imbalances as I have a lot of hair algae. I was kind of counting on this plant to grow strong and help with that.

Thanks! I appreciate any insight. This is my first planted tank. I really want this plant to work out; I think it will look so nice there when it grows in and I haven't found anything that looks similar in my local stores.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @Mary B

I've looked at your picture a couple of times and the new growth looks very good, I see no obvious indications of a deficiency in your tank.  As a result I would suggest just letting it grow some more then take 1/2 the stems, cut them off, and plant the top portions and see how they do.  -Roy

[Mary B]

Hi Roy, thank you for your reply! I guess my picture didn't show the one leaf it had lost. But now that it has leaves to spare, I suppose it isn't that bad to lose one here and there. Thank you also for explaining how to propagate it - that will be handy in the future. 🙂

[RadMax8]

In my experience, anything in the hygro family are potassium hogs. Lacy holes are a tell-tale sign of potassium deficiency. Remember, plants only grow to their limiting factor!

[Mary B]

On 9/26/2022 at 8:05 PM, RadMax8 said:

In my experience, anything in the hygro family are potassium hogs. Lacy holes are a tell-tale sign of potassium deficiency. Remember, plants only grow to their limiting factor!

Thank you, thats good to know! Considering I already have an enriched substrate, would you say root tabs or liquid would be a better way to get more potassium in there?

[RadMax8]

I use dry fertilizer in my main display tank… measuring spoons and salts. It’s easy to make specific does changes. If you’re uncomfortable with that, I’d look to liquids.