Is my dwarf aquarium lily bulb a dud?

[memorywrangler]

How can I tell if my dwarf aquarium lily bulb is a dud?  I’ve had it in my tank for 3 weeks and nothing has happened (except for fuzzy, black and white, algae-like stiff growing on it.)
 

[SkaleyAquatics]

Did you squeeze it to see if it is firm? And have you tried flipping it? 

[Kurt Brutting]

I still have one as a bulb in one of my aquariums for over 6 weeks. If your bulb isn’t floating or mushy it should still be good. 

Also they may float at 1st, but if it sinks then later floats may be a problem. 

[lefty o]

if its not getting soft, give it more time. sometimes bulbs are duds though.

[memorywrangler]

@SkaleyAquatics I would say it is firmish.  The there's a squishy layer of fuzzy algae stuff on the outside and then it's firm under that.  It smells...ok.  Not terrible, but I definitely wouldn't eat it if it were a food.  I turned it a few days ago.

[SkaleyAquatics]

I would give it some more time then but could be a dud

[JoeQ]

I would insert root tabs under it to hopefully encourage growth.  I did this once successfully. 

[Nyssa]

My bulb was doing this as well when I first got it on a whim at a big box store, I flipped it over and put a root tab under it to encourage it to root and that sprung it into action.

But now it's just some short leaves and stumpy lilypads that haven't really grown any more. I moved it to my betta tank where it could get more light thinking that that was the problem... I guess some bulbs are just kind of doomed from the start?

Hopefully you have better luck 😅

[memorywrangler]

 Update:  Yes, it was a dud.  I took it out last week and it stank bad!

cest le vie.