Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: Helen on June 04, 2018, 09:40:26 PM

Title: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Helen on June 04, 2018, 09:40:26 PM
My Bolbitis heudelotii is looking a little sorry for itself (older leaves have gone dark rusty brown). I suspect it is suffering nutrient deficiency (either phosphate or nitrate), but I was wondering whether anyone else has had / cured this? And if so, how?
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: fcmf on June 04, 2018, 09:53:21 PM
I did try this plant once but, from recollection, it didn't last more than a week, so I'm afraid I can't help with this. Hope someone else is able to. I'm fairly certain Sue keeps this plant.

Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Matt on June 04, 2018, 10:45:45 PM
I have some and I think Sue does as well...  mine is quite new to the tank but seems to be doing ok... remind me what ferts you are dosing @Helen ?
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: TopCookie on June 04, 2018, 10:47:34 PM
Not one I have either, alas... 
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Sue on June 05, 2018, 08:28:07 AM
I do have it, and it does well in both my tanks. I do find odd leaves become detached between water changes but never more that 2 at most per week, usually one of none. I find tiny clumps floating in the water. The leaves on my plants are dark green, even the detached ones.

I have a large clump in my 180 litre and a small clump in the betta's tank, which has never grown as well as the one in the big tank possibly due to less NPK because the small tank has only one fish. (N from fish waste and P and K from fish food)
The big clump in the big tank is under the water sprite so it doesn't get the full effect of the lights. Before the water sprite grew, it did suffer from BBA on the leaves.
I have GH 5, KH 3 and pH around 7.4 in the tank. And too many fish for the tank. I feed the tank with Seachem Flourish (the trace mineral one) once a week, if I remember, at half the stated dose. I do not use carbon, either gas or in liquid form. Though all the fish, and their waste decompsing in the substrate will produce a lot of CO2.
The other plants, apart from the water sprite, are all slow growing - java fern, anubias and bucephalandra - so they won't out-compete the bolbitis for food, though I also have hornwort which is now taking over on the surface.


I know Helen is slowly increasing the fish stock, so the NPK in that tank won't be as high as in mine.
What fertiliser do you use? And at full dose or less? Since mine grows well at very low fertiliser dose and no added carbon, it may well be a plant that thrives in a low food environment  ???
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Helen on June 05, 2018, 04:35:10 PM
I'm currently not dosing anything at the moment. Which is clearly not right for my tank. So I'm trying to figure out what to dose.

I'm interested in your comment @Sue about having too many fish in your tank. Which calculation is that by?

I was increasing my fish stock, but think I'm at capacity now - which is why I'm reviewing ferts. Because I'm not expecting to get any additional NPK from fish (I'm assuming that any increases due to increased fish sizes will be negligible). Because I'm rubbish at counting my fish and I have several shoals, I can tell you the numbers of fish that went in. I've only had one loss that I have found, but haven't succeeded in counting a full shoal of anything (except the rainbows) since they were released from their fish shop bags!

The other thing to note is that I have consciously been feeding the fish less dried food the last few weeks. This is because one of the male rainbows has a sore on his side. I know they don't do well on dried food alone and the sore looked like v. bad constipation was the cause. So it is highly possible that the P and K are low because of that. (The sore looks like it's getting better, but hasn't gone yet)

Edited to add numbers:
Espe 10
Harlequins 12
5 bands 12
Rainbows 9
M. Kubotu 12
Kuhlis 2
Bn plec 1
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Sue on June 05, 2018, 04:50:38 PM
The CC gives me as 88% stocked, and since I consider the CC to be over-generous, I consider 88% to be over stocked  :) That % is not helped by the fact that some of my fish species aren't in the profiles so I've had to substitute with others in the CC. I have looked at aqadvisor and they don't have all my fish either. Stiphodons and rice fish are missing from both.
The betta's tank (when I have a betta in there) is 19% stocked according to the CC and the Bolbitis does not grow nearly as prolifically in that tank.

I feed a piece of algae wafer (not a whole one) for the stiphodons, a few New Life Spectrum 0.5 mm pellets and Omega One freshwater flakes on most days with frozen food once a week.
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Helen on June 05, 2018, 05:03:07 PM
Is that 88% based on the tank size or selected filtration?

I know I am underfeeding my fish if anything. This is partly deliberate because when I do feed them, the normal amount is 3 x 5mm sinking pellets crushed, one 10mm algae wafer and crushed flakes (I have no idea how much, but whatever looks right for how quickly the surface feeders eat). My gut feel tells me this is too much, but I find it really difficult getting the balance between all the different fish (feeding levels) and making sure everyone gets fed (the rasboras eat everyone else's portions given half a chance). But the last few weeks they've had one or two frozen cubes every couple of days and I've also been using the Delice gel food (one packet at a time when not feeding frozen food).

I'm guessing that frozen food doesn't have all the supplemental nutrients and therefore doesn't contribute as much P and K.
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Sue on June 05, 2018, 06:47:30 PM
The % is based on water volume and standard internal. I do have 2 filters but both of them combined don''t make oversized. Besides which, I don't believe that increasing filtration increases the amount of fish a tank will hold, it just increases water flow.
I only feed the fish once a day, about an hour after the lights come on, except water change day when I feed them after the water change - that's the day they get frozen food.

After reading your comments in your other thread, maybe adding some NPK would help.




I seem to have found by trial and error which plants do well in my tank and which won't survive at all. I have no idea why these plants survive while others don't. I have have lush hornwort, and someone on another forum tells people never to get hornwort as all it does is drop leaves everywhere. My java fern loses more leaves that my hornwort!
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: fcmf on June 05, 2018, 07:37:35 PM
My java fern loses more leaves that my hornwort!
Aha - now that might be something I can help with. My first attempt with java fern was dire - leaves went brown and BBA-ridden. My second attempt has been much more successful so far. The difference? The java fern is tied to a stone and so is lower down rather than tied to the higher bogwood and skimming the surface. The light is also partially blocked out due to the enormous Echinodorus plant which was impossible to secure low down and which I've just left floating, with 3 moss balls on top of it to stop it tipping sideways in the water flow. Since that, I have read that java fern does indeed do better if shaded by other plants above.
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Sue on June 05, 2018, 07:46:36 PM
Mine is attached to a piece of wood no more than 3 inches high, and it is under the water sprite/hornwort tangle. It is the windelov variety rather than the standard form. I've never had any problems with the standard type; I do wonder if windelov is not as robust.
I got rid of all my standard java fern because windelov is so much prettier and I'm beginning to wonder if that was a mistake.
Title: Re: Care of Bolbitis heudelotii
Post by: Helen on June 05, 2018, 08:02:06 PM
I have windolev too. It is one of the few original plants (along with the vallis and some of the crypts) that have been in my tank since I first set it up (8 years ago?) Over that time, my tank has gone through various degrees of tech. My java fern was at its best when I was injecting CO2 and dosing relatively heavily.

That said, since I refurbed the tank and the bogwood it is on got lowered in the tank, it has improved. It has also been a bit better shaded, but that isn't consistent shade at the moment because it is dependent on the rotala which gets fairly heavily trimmed, sporadically. I'm hoping that the nymphoid will grow sufficiently to provide it shade. I think my LED lights are a bit too bright for it (compared to the old flourescents that the leds replaced)

Another tip with the java fern is to prune the plantlets because they seem to drain nutrients from the main plant. They can either just be removed or the whole leaf can be cut off.

I don't know how robust the standard java fern is, but my windelov seems pretty robust to have survived all the different phases of my tank.