Red mangrove

[Robin]

Has anyone had any experience with these plants, in or out of an aquarium?

[Lizzie Block]

@Robin Huh, this is an interesting topic. I haven't come across too many fresh water hobbyists interested in mangroves (other than myself lol). But yes, I had acquired a red mangrove propagule (seedling) last year at Aquatic Experience in Jersey and kept it alive for some time just to experiment with the difficulty of growing one in a tank. I'd rank it a medium-difficult plant to keep thriving in aquaria. I mean, it's literally a tree... 

Mangroves are pretty versatile, they are unique in that they thrive in salinity in nature. Tidal areas of tropical wetlands and marshes - this is their natural habitat. So basically, you'd want to mimic something similar if you plan to keep one at home. They don't require salt water, I grew mine in totally fresh tap water. But, they need a lot of light (sunlight spectrum and relatively bright), warm water, sandy or silty soil which is nutrient-rich, and they need to be planted just so. The propagule will need to be placed vertically in the water column, but not into the substrate. The roots find their way there naturally. The leaves must always be kept well above the water line. 

Keep in mind too that they grow extremely slowly as compared to aquarium plants. Mine grew maybe 5 new leaves in about 6 months. After a couple years, it would have been about the size of a nice bonsai tree. But, here's where we went wrong... Red mangroves do not adapt to new environments very well (if at all) once they are established within specific water parameters. They do not appreciate being moved around. I believe that's how I lost mine. If you plan to grow one, keep it in the same tank for it's whole life if you can.

I hope this helped, this is just my experience. I'm sure there are plenty of reef keepers out there who have had much more success or would maybe have some tricks, but that would be a topic for a different forum 😉

Red Mangrove natural habitat:

[Robin]

On 9/7/2020 at 6:00 PM, Lizzie Block said:

@Robin Huh, this is an interesting topic. I haven't come across too many fresh water hobbyists interested in mangroves (other than myself lol). But yes, I had acquired a red mangrove propagule (seedling) last year at Aquatic Experience in Jersey and kept it alive for some time just to experiment with the difficulty of growing one in a tank. I'd rank it a medium-difficult plant to keep thriving in aquaria. I mean, it's literally a tree... 

Mangroves are pretty versatile, they are unique in that they thrive in salinity in nature. Tidal areas of tropical wetlands and marshes - this is their natural habitat. So basically, you'd want to mimic something similar if you plan to keep one at home. They don't require salt water, I grew mine in totally fresh tap water. But, they need a lot of light (sunlight spectrum and relatively bright), warm water, sandy or silty soil which is nutrient-rich, and they need to be planted just so. The propagule will need to be placed vertically in the water column, but not into the substrate. The roots find their way there naturally. The leaves must always be kept well above the water line. 

Keep in mind too that they grow extremely slowly as compared to aquarium plants. Mine grew maybe 5 new leaves in about 6 months. After a couple years, it would have been about the size of a nice bonsai tree. But, here's where we went wrong... Red mangroves do not adapt to new environments very well (if at all) once they are established within specific water parameters. They do not appreciate being moved around. I believe that's how I lost mine. If you plan to grow one, keep it in the same tank for it's whole life if you can.

I hope this helped, this is just my experience. I'm sure there are plenty of reef keepers out there who have had much more success or would maybe have some tricks, but that would be a topic for a different forum 😉

Red Mangrove natural habitat:

Thank you for all this information. I saw some seedlings for sale and I think I'll give them a shot. It should be an interesting experiment.

[Aubrey]

I just got a couple of mangroves today. As for keeping the leaves above water, do you mean just the actual leaves or the stem part coming out of the seed pod that the leaves grow from?

[Daniel]

After hearing @Cory mention them in the livestream the other day, I ordered a few. I intend to plant them in the big aquarium since they can easily grow out of the top.

They should arrive shortly,

[Cory]

I'm not sure exactly. I think it's just the leaves that have to be out of the water. 

[Lizzie Block]

Yeah I planted mine further into the water column than your picture shows - I wanted to make sure the roots could easily find the substrate. Most important that the leaves stay out of water..

[Aubrey]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

mention them in the livestream the other day, I ordered a few.

Same here. The Co-Op effect strikes again.

[yannachka]

i've had some mangroves in my tanks for a while, growth is good both in the air roots and the leaves. i have a vision for a mangrove heavy tank in a large tank where you (very slowly) grow the air roots to give an appearance of tree roots with the leaves forming a canopy above the tank. ill post some photos of my mangroves when i get home. one thing about mangroves is that they do not do well when moved once they get past the 24" size or so, they tend to die off when moved.

from my experience, you want the entire stem the leaves form out of to be above water which is the brown part you see in the photo. leaves will develop all alongside that portion which is why you want it out of water.

growing mangroves is kind of like a bonsai, it takes years to grow them and lots or pruning. so to develop the air roots, which are these:

you need to have a nutrient rich water (fertilized) to encourage that growth. you do need to find a balance with the leaves in the canopy though, if you allow the mangrove to grow too many leaves they will stop developing the air roots. once you trim a leaf from the canopy it tends to not grow back so trimming leaves is kind of like pruning a bonsai tree. it can take years before they get to the point where you really need to start maintaining them though, they're slow growers. these are amazing nitrate removers and do better with harder water and minerals.

 

im happy cory gave these a shoutout, i think more people need to be playing around with them and im always pushing for people to grow plants out of the tank as well as growing them inside.

[Expectorating_Aubergine]

I've had them in aquariums, and I also have some outside in pots. They are supposed to do well in ponds. I've also been playing with bald cypress trees in aquariums. Those grow a little too well in aquariums. Nice part is that they bonsai really well and grow relatively quickly compared to mangroves....