mangrove trees in crabitat

[Guest]

I know that mangrove trees are homes for crabs. there is a website that sells red mangrove seeds and gives instructions on how to grow them. would they be okay to put in the tank? I only ask because of the species of mangrove - is the red the right one? i have ruggies and PPs. btw - the red mangrove is rhizophora mangle. i think it would be fun to have live plants in the tank! I would grow them in a glass bowl or dish or something i would be able to remove occasionally.

[Guest]

The stuff is safe to put into the hermie cage. They climb it and so on. The only thing is that hermies tend to uproot plants or chew them till they die. So.. when the plants look a little rough you could take them out for a mounth or so to let them regrow. Up to you!

[Guest]

What website sells the mangrove seeds? I want to get some.

[Guest]

I'm not sure whats site sell them. Try google it. I know ebay sells them! But its cold now they might die if you buy them now.

[Guest]

I have two mangrove plants in my tat... they aer about 8" tall and had two leaves on them. The crabs loved climbing on them but they did eventually die. I planted them in a glass jar filled with natural stones/gravel and then burried the jar in the sand... and filled it with water. It gave the hermits another water source.

I still have the sad looking things in the tank and would love to replace them but it seems either I don't know how to grow them or they are hard to grow. I have seen them on ebay but they only sell them by the bunch... and I only want two.

I know Narnar had some for her tank I wonder if she had better luck. ???

[Guest]

Well, to answer a number of questions, I found that the website Florida Plants Online sells red mangrove seeds. They're over at http://www.floridaplants.com/Mangroves/Default.htm


Interestingly, I also noticed the following over at the website:

The Red Mangrove utilizes an internal salt pump to exclude salt ions. This is the means by which the plant survives the saline environment. The "pump" is a cellular process whereby the element magnesium (Mg) is taken into the plant's cells, forcing out sodium (Na) ions. Therefore, growing Red Mangrove in a closed system such as an aquarium requires close monitoring of the magnesium balance as the plants will remove not only the nitrogen wastes in the water, but magnesium as well. When magnesium is depleted in a tank, the plants will turn yellow or exhibit other signs of salt stress, including shrivelling.

Red Mangroves also grow beautifully in fresh water- try some in a vase of water on the windowsill!

Also, remember, there's no need to fertilize these plants when growing them in a closed sytem. They get along fine on bacterial waste products in the water, and adding nutrients to a tank defeats the purpose of having them there to remove nutrients.

Mangrove seeds may be grown in fresh, brackish, or marine environment. Remember that they like a good amount of light. When they are ready, transfer to your tank.

If you guys are having the problem listed above, you might want to think about giving the plants a little magnesium, it sounds like. How to do that without also giving the hermies a bunch of magnesium is a different story. [/quote][/url]

[Guest]

I'd think they'd be OK. I have a few pumpkin plants growing in my ISO right now to give the crabs a natural feel, and to clean the air, so they could breathe better.

[blaze88]

THats a really cool idea, you may want the plant to grow and get bigger outside the crabitat first though.

[Guest]

http://toptropicals.com/people/seeds/htm/diy.htm

this is the site i was going to get them from. i think it specifies if the temp around you is <40 degrees it is inadvisable to order them. they're pretty cheap so im not too worried about them dying. this site sells seedlings not seeds

[Guest]

Hmmm... from what I just read it seems to me they only need the magnesium for the salt water so if you grow them in fresh you might not need to add magnesium.

I know Magnesium carbonate is corrosive and is one of the anti caking agents used in table salts that is what is bad for hermits...


Yeah, the plants are cheap... 3 for $5... but the almost $10 shipping is what gets ya....

[Guest]

The other thing with the mangroves to keep an eye out for is that you have to grow them, at least at first, in the kind of water they were started in. If they have been grown in salt, you have to start them in salt and slowly get it to fresh, and vice versa. I am planning on adding some mangroves to my new 'tat idea...... I have some fresh and some salt started. They get HUGE, though, and more than 1 every 20 gallons requires an iron supplement. You can do that by using a substrate liek the flourite that they sell for planted aquariums. It's perfectly safe, and provides the necessary minerals for aquatic plants.

[Guest]

Maybe that is why mine died. I had no idea what they were started in...

[Guest]

It's possible. Mangroves can grow in anything from pure freshwater to super-salty water, but they have to have time to adjust. It's usually a good idea to ask whoever you buy them from what specific gravity they were started in, and then you can SLOWLY ramp it up or down over a period of a few weeks till you have the salinity that you're after. The ones sold specifically for refugiums are usually salt, the ones sold as houseplants are usually fresh.