Mangrove Tips Or How To Improve My Mangrove's Chances

[MeMyFishandI]

Hi,

I am going to renovate my IM 25 gallon lagoon. I currently have one scrawny mangrove stalk. It is doing okay (despite our kitten's attempts at sampling it). I would like to be able to make this scrawny stalk grow and become a bit of a focal point for my tank.

I am in search of any tips or resources to allow this little stalk to flourish. My local fish store wasn't much help, beyond spraying it daily. Most of the information I have found has been about mangroves out in the wild.

Thanks for any tips, tricks or ideas you may have!

-m

 

[christianscorals]

i’ve heard miracle mud has boosted growth if used as substrate for the mangrove to sit in

 

[reefadam]

I’m definitely no expert, but from my experience it’s better to start off with propagules and root them in freshwater first. You want them to establish some strong new roots and a few leaves before transitioning to saltwater. Full strength saltwater will slow their growth tremendously and they will excrete excess salt through their leaves. Hence, spraying or wiping down the leaves.
To promote prop root development you want to simulate tides by moving the mangrove shoot up and down to various water levels while never letting the roots go completely dry. This is a real challenge, but the prop roots are what makes a mangrove look iconic and they are different from the normal roots. I’ve used gardeners/ plant tape in the past to tie them to a piece of acrylic rod and move them up and down.
The other challenging aspect is lighting them, because they can reach 14” within a year or so, outgrowing normal tank lights, (if not getting too close to burn themselves in the process). Recommended to have them on their own light source. Hope this helps! I love when mangroves are featured in displays. Julian sprung has some excellent examples so you might want to try looking up his tanks.

 

[reefadam]

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One the nicer designs I’ve seen incorporating a mangrove

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

This is the guide I've been following: https://www.twolittlefishies.com/images/mangrove_manual.pdf

I've had mine 6 months so far, its grown several new leaves in the past few months so hopefully its doing well.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

I’m definitely no expert, but from my experience it’s better to start off with propagules and root them in freshwater first. You want them to establish some strong new roots and a few leaves before transitioning to saltwater. Full strength saltwater will slow their growth tremendously and they will excrete excess salt through their leaves. Hence, spraying or wiping down the leaves.
To promote prop root development you want to simulate tides by moving the mangrove shoot up and down to various water levels while never letting the roots go completely dry. This is a real challenge, but the prop roots are what makes a mangrove look iconic and they are different from the normal roots. I’ve used gardeners/ plant tape in the past to tie them to a piece of acrylic rod and move them up and down.
The other challenging aspect is lighting them, because they can reach 14” within a year or so, outgrowing normal tank lights, (if not getting too close to burn themselves in the process). Recommended to have them on their own light source. Hope this helps! I love when mangroves are featured in displays. Julian sprung has some excellent examples so you might want to try looking up his tanks.

Thank you for the reply and the information. This is some great information. Thanks for your time.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

This is the guide I've been following: https://www.twolittlefishies.com/images/mangrove_manual.pdf

I've had mine 6 months so far, its grown several new leaves in the past few months so hopefully its doing well.

Thanks for the booklet. I am looking forward to reading though it.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

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One the nicer designs I’ve seen incorporating a mangroveI

I'll take a peek a boo thanks

 

[MeMyFishandI]

i’ve heard miracle mud has boosted growth if used as substrate for the mangrove to sit in

Never heard of it, but that doesn't mean much. I'll look into it!

 

[MabuyaQ]

First find out what type of mangrove you want to grow as that already makes a big difference in care. Red mangroves don't need regular misting to remove salt as they use a different mechanic (they like misting for humidity and removing dust, etc. like normal houseplants. They require appropriate and stable magnesium levels to survive in saltwater. Starting in freshwater does excelerate growth, but the transition to saltwater is also a very lenghty proces so depending on species not worth it. Also with Red mangroves it is more important not to disturb their roots as damage is often lethal to small plants. They like high PAR but should be lighted like plants not corals. I keep mine (2 Red mangroves) under a 150w growlight. I used a mixture of fine aragonite sand, some coral rubble, and Aquaforest Life Source (mud) as substrate. Also added some freshwater fertilizer tabs (the kind that also include iron) next to the bottem rooting end of the propagules I planted just below the surface of the substrate. When the plants (Red mangroves) get taller just hit them with strong flow and they will develop plenty of support roots, just like in nature, no need to root them floating or give them changing waterlevels.

 

[MeMyFishandI]

First find out what type of mangrove you want to grow as that already makes a big difference in care. Red mangroves don't need regular misting to remove salt as they use a different mechanic (they like misting for humidity and removing dust, etc. like normal houseplants. They require appropriate and stable magnesium levels to survive in saltwater. Starting in freshwater does excelerate growth, but the transition to saltwater is also a very lenghty proces so depending on species not worth it. Also with Red mangroves it is more important not to disturb their roots as damage is often lethal to small plants. They like high PAR but should be lighted like plants not corals. I keep mine (2 Red mangroves) under a 150w growlight. I used a mixture of fine aragonite sand, some coral rubble, and Aquaforest Life Source (mud) as substrate. Also added some freshwater fertilizer tabs (the kind that also include iron) next to the bottem rooting end of the propagules I planted just below the surface of the substrate. When the plants (Red mangroves) get taller just hit them with strong flow and they will develop plenty of support roots, just like in nature, no need to root them floating or give them changing waterlevels.

Thanks for the information. I'll take it all under consideration.