Mangrove growth thread

[Eric R.]

Want to document and share the growth of my mangroves. I've been growing them out in a standard FW 20 long tank for just over a year now. I'm going to slowly transition that tank to full salinity (35 ppt) to make a macro/mangrove display tank in the next couple of months, just need to move out the FW fish I've been keeping in there (rainbow krib pair and one juvenile male).

I found that when I started growing these a year ago, I couldn't find a lot of well documented information about growing mangroves, especially from threads that weren't years old from people no longer active on forums. Also I couldn't find a lot of information about trimming growth stems on mangroves to achieve a "bonsai" style effect. I did this and it seems to be working well so far, so I'm going to continue to document this as well.

I received the mangroves in the mail on Feb. 8, 2021, shipped from a seller in Florida. Was supposed to be 3-day shipping, but they were delayed over the weekend and it ended up taking 5 days. I live in Vermont, so February gets VERY cold. I bought them from a seller on ebay, 5 propagules for $30 shipped, with some roots and 1 pair of leaves. They are red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle). Experience with seller was so-so, and it doesn't look like they are selling on ebay anymore, so I can't particularly recommend who to buy from.

Here's how they were shipped (wrapped in plastic grocery bags and put in a shipping envelope):

Here's how they looked when I got them (numbered for reference once planted):

Note the one on the far left had the growth tip/apical stem snapped off in shipping, and the one second from right has a browned/blackened growth tip. The effects of these are noticeable later, and I'll mention it then.

I put them in a bucket while I setup the tank. A week later (2/15/21), they were planted and looked like this:

And just for fun, a picture of a ladybug on a mangrove! More picture updates to come.

 

[Eric R.]

A bunch of pictures over the last year:

3/9/21

4/22/21, different angle. Note that the one in the back, the farthest left in previous tank pictures, isn't doing well. This was the number 4 in the first image with them all lined up on a desk, that had the black/brown growth tip when I received it. It's lost one of the two leaves it had then. The one that's tip fell off in shipping hasn't died, but hasn't grown new leaves. The others are growing well, and starting to put on their second pair of leaves.

4/27/21 - new leaves!

6/2/21 - the #1 mangrove in the first picture is putting out new growth!

6/22/21 - more new growth!

10/24/21 - Summer is nice in Vermont, I missed a few months of pictures. Look at all the new growth and leaves! The one grew tall very quickly, and the #1 mangrove that had lost it's growing tip but then sprouted two new ones has since gained a few inches and two new pairs of leaves! I removed the #4 mangrove, it had lost its other leaf and turned a shriveled brown/black. It never really recovered from the damage it received while shipping. I also decided to try trimming the growing stem on two of them to try to start working on a "bonsai" style effect (and keep them from getting too tall for the space!).

Before trimming the growing tip:

After trimming the tip:

 

[Eric R.]

11/22/21 - the shorter one that was trimmed has a new growth tip! Nothing very noticeable on the tallest one yet however.

12/12/21 - more growth on the shorter, trimmed mangrove (#5 from the original photo), and some visible new growth on the taller mangrove (#2 in the original) as well!

#5:

#2:

 

[Eric R.]

12/30/21 - Started spraying down all the leaves (to keep them from getting dusty mostly, since they are in freshwater still, not salt). Several individual shots as well as some root pictures:

#3

#1

#2

#5

#3 (roots, from the front of the tank) Note - the reason more roots are exposed is because the mangroves are planted at the top of a slope on one end of the tank, but the kribs were excavating a cave in the slope and eroding sand out from the slope as a result, exposing more of the roots. Good opportunity for some roots pictures before gently replacing the sand.

#3 (from the end of the tank)

#5 roots (from the end of the tank)

 

[Sean Clark]

Following along. I have been growing mangroves for a long time but I have always had relatively low nutrients so they grow pretty slowly. This has always been a "I wonder if I could" kind of project. Not really trying to grow a bunch of trees in my house or use them for nutrient control.

 

[Eric R.]

Reserved for updates

 

[Eric R.]

One thing I've noticed is that the mangroves seem to have been growing more slowly these last few winter months compared to over the summer. My bedroom is upstairs, and we don't have heater vents upstairs (plus the house is old and poorly insulated), so while the downstairs is 70-71 during the day and 66 at night, the upstairs is about 5 degrees colder usually. I wonder if temperature has much to do with it?

 

[SauceyReef]

Sweet thread! Thanks for sharing

 

[Kimosobey]

Thanks for sharing! About to dive into the mangrove world tomorrow. 6 going into the sump

 

[Sean Clark]

This is old and I only have six of these plants currently.

 

[Eric R.]

I emptied the 20g tank the mangroves were in, so I replanted them in a 5g bucket with sand and osmocote plus pellets, and put them outside for the summer. I brought them to school in Sept., and they've been in the greenhouse attached to my classroom since then. Here are some pictures from today. I've been replacing the water when I do a WC from the classroom planted FW tank, still haven't transitioned to SW yet. Once I have a tank for them I will. I need to find my bottle of DIY mix trace elements as I haven't dosed that in a while.

Should hopefully have a lot more branches soon! I think it's interesting that the growing stem split on both branches of the tallest one without me cutting the apical stem this time.