Mangrove care?

[Austrarhyncus]

I bought a single propagule (they were $50 each) from my LFS a week ago, and it's being kept in my 15 gallon tall freshwater tank at the moment, as I do not have a saltwater tank set up yet. Any tips on caring for it? It's being floated, to trigger the roots, and I'm not sure what kind of light I'm running for it (mayabe CFL) but I know it's around 18 Watts.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

holy god 50$ for a mangrove pod?
ok now that my heart attack is over, more light or move the bulb as close as you can without scorching it, get something like a chunk of filter sponge if you dont have any mud for it and make sure the base of the mangrove pod is touching the sponge, in my experience they trigger roots faster if the base is touching something, especially if it has trapped nutrients (I usually tuck them into my overflow sitting on or against a porous sponge) they love tons of light, occasionally spray to top of the pod with fresh RO water to rinse of salt to keep it from smothering.

 

[Austrarhyncus]

Yeh, mangrove pods are very rare in Australian LFS, and I don’t live near anywhere that has naturally occurring mangroves.

Can I just lower the water level so that the base touches the substrate? And yes I do spray the pod once a day at least with rainwater, but just to keep the mangrove in a humid space.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

sure you could that would work well.

 

[Austrarhyncus]

Any thing else to note? By the way, its leaves (or area where the leaves will form) are turning lighter, not sure if it's just the colour that the leaves will be or if it's in the middle of turning yellow.

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Or maybe I'm just being way too paranoid about this $50 seed dying.

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By the way, what species is it?

 

[Ron Reefman]

That type of mangrove propagule is from a Red Mangrove which is the specie that live right on the water's edge and have lots of prop roots. I believe that can grow just fine in fresh water and the bottom tip does not need to be in or even near the substrate. Even in a small paper cup with water only, it will put out roots and start to grow.

I hate saying this to you after hearing the $50 price (that's crazy), but we just pick them up off the beach. For $50 I'd ship you as many as you'd be allowed to import! I've come home from the beach with a handful of propagules (roughly a dozen) and just put them in a glass with water. In time they sprout at both ends. In a couple of months the roots were packed so tight in the glass I couldn't separate the individuals. So I planted the whole batch in my shallow reef for about a year until they were putting out so many roots they were making a mess of the sand in the tank.

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

I agree, it doesn't need contact, but after sprouting a couple I find they tend to sprout quicker with contact and I would like to give him any advantage possible since he paid $50 for that thing lol

 

[Austrarhyncus]

Thanks for the ID, just didn't see any red on the "Red" mangrove, lol. Upon further research, I think that it is most likely Rhizophora stylosa, not R. mangle. Also, thanks for the kind offer Ron, but my state has very strict biosecurity laws that make importing live organisms either very expensive, due to quarantine laws, or prohibited all together), so the only ways to get ahold of mangrove seeds are either to hope that one of my LFS has some in stock (which I doubt is often), or drive 12 hours north to the nearest mangrove swamp. If I were in the States (or literally anywhere that didn't have such tight biosecurity laws), I'd gladly accept your kind offer, but alas, that's not the case .

Also, as you can see, the seed is indeed making contact with the substrate, so hopefully roots will emerge soon.

By the way, I'm in Western Australia. And lastly, is my mangrove happy?

 

[saltwater sam]

You should plant the bottom of that propagule in the substrate! It will grow much faster. Alternatively, you could plant it in a pot in the tank. Very awesome species by the way! I have a thread on my mangrove tank with several species over in the marine plants and macroalgae forum.

 

[Austrarhyncus]

Just read one of your threads Sam, is it true that floating mangrove seeds will kill them?

 

[saltwater sam]

It's true if it is done for long periods of time. The propagule will be able to survive on the energy stored within the propagule for a period of time while it's floating, but they won't progress. However, if it's only temporary, and the roots are eventually placed in substrate, they will often recover and grow just fine. Once the mangrove has its roots in substrate, it's able to develop fine hair roots which are what the plant needs to absorb nutrients.

 

[Austrarhyncus]

So it cannot absorb nutrients while it’s afloat and has no hair roots? I suppose I’ll need to plant it in some sort of pot, how can I trigger aerial roots, if it’s planted directly into the substrate?

 

[ReefkeeperZ]

only plant it a short way in, aerial roots will sprout above the substrate.

 

[saltwater sam]

Aerial roots trigger on their own. You don't need any special tricks. If the tree is healthy, it will produce aerial roots with a little time.

 

[Austrarhyncus]

Oh, it’s just that I often see the pictures of the propagules being planted straight into the substrate and the plant grows well but without the aerial roots. But I’ll take your word for, I’ll stick the propagule straight into the substrate and see what happens. If the aerial roots don’t appear, well maybe I’ll just need to replicate the tides...

 

[Austrarhyncus]

So if I wanted to relocate the mangrove, how can I make the move as gentle as possible for the mangrove? Right now it is in black Fluval Plant Substrate, which it will not be in forever, it'll be moved to white sand when I get a saltwater tank set up.

By the way, the mangrove isn't doing much, I'm glad it doesn't look dead but it doesn't seem to be growing either. I don't want to check it for roots, as this will stress out.

 

[Tripod1404]

So if I wanted to relocate the mangrove, how can I make the move as gentle as possible for the mangrove? Right now it is in black Fluval Plant Substrate, which it will not be in forever, it'll be moved to white sand when I get a saltwater tank set up.

By the way, the mangrove isn't doing much, I'm glad it doesn't look dead but it doesn't seem to be growing either. I don't want to check it for roots, as this will stress out.

It will hold the substrate pretty strongly, you might not be able to remove it without a big chunk of substrate coming with the roots..

 

[Austrarhyncus]

Fluval plant substrate is quite loose, don’t see how the mangrove can take away a large chunk lol

 

[Tripod1404]

Fluval plant substrate is quite loose, don't see how the mangrove can take away a large chunk lol

It has root hairs. Every strand of root will basically hold on to every piece of substrate it is touching.

These plants grow in inter-tidal zones that have fine sand substrate and can withstand hurricanes. If it was that easy to uproot them, they will be easily washed out to open ocean in nature.

 

[Austrarhyncus]

Ohh, might’ve been a bad idea to put in substrate that I’ll have to pull it out from later. I’ll try to pull it out (hopefully though probably not, the roots haven’t sprouted yet and the seed will be less stressed and easier to move).