# water lettuce dropping roots



## kaisa

i put a bunch of water lettuce in my tank on Sunday night and today i've noticed lots of the fuzzy roots have fallen off  Is this normal for newly introduced water lettuce?? or is my tank not right for them?

i have them in a 5g and a 10g each with a 23w daylight cfl above. both tanks are heated to about 74 degrees but are not filtered.. I forgot to add any fertz but this morning I added some flourish when I seen most of their roots had dropped.


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## CRS Fan

It is probably caused by insufficient nitrates. These plants are nitrate sponges for sure. Add some nitrates and that should fix it up.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## kaisa

hmmm How would I go about adding nitrates?


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## Jonney_boy

You can dose KNO3 found at your local hydroponics store ( look up ei dosing for instructions)

or you can pickup a bottle of macro ferts from your local fish shop. Some brands break up the N, P and K into seperate bottles so look for the one that has a N on it.


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## Captured Moments

That's interesting considering you only got them on Sunday and today is only Tuesday. Even if you had them in plain water in a bucket, I don't see how the roots could fall off so quickly. Were they healthy to start with? and how are the leaves now? are they yellowing?


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## kaisa

the leaves are fine as far as I can tell... I've never had water lettuce before though

maybe my bettas are nibbeling the roots causing them to break off? or cause I didn't have any fertz in the tank until this morning?


heres some pics of the leaves... theres lots of babyies that have grown since Sunday. those roots sure make a mess  good thing the tanks are barebottom so its easy to clean up


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## kaisa

heres an underside pic... you can see one still has its roots but i bet if I touched it they would all come falling off


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## Sandy Landau

The roots look okay to me.


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## kaisa

well when i first got them all the little individual plants had cool looking long bushy roots like that one you can see but now most have fallen and im left with a few little roots on each plant. hopefully they grow back


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## Captured Moments

I found that water lettuce are somewhat of a good indicator of tank conditions. When I had them in a few of my tanks, I noticed that they vary in size depending on the amount of light and nutrients. With good light and nutrients, each plant can be a few inches across (4-5 inches) and the roots are very long (around 12"). In other instances in lower conditions, they can stay quite small and the roots short. 
In you case, the conditions probably changed quite a bit from the tank that they were in from the seller to your tank, the buyer. I would say that they are going through an adjustment and a shock period, hence loosing the roots.
Just make sure you give them enough light and enough nutrients and they will grow back to as good a condition you provide them with.

As for nutrients, you have quite a few options. As one poster has said, Nitrate is a good source for water lettuce but you should provide Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphate and some trace elements. If you have Flourish, that will be good for the trace elements. If you want to stick with the Seachem line, they have the Nitrogen one as well, and I think Potassium and Phosphate.
or you can go to a Hydrophonics store and buy:
KNO3 for Nitrate
KH2PO4 for Phosphate
K2So4 for Potassium.

and CSM+B for trace as an example (from a recent sponsor Aqua Flora Plants - nice plants btw).
Good Luck.


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## Scholz

the roots are delicate and can be damaged with handling very easily they'll grow back


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## Blackbar

Scholz said:


> the roots are delicate and can be damaged with handling very easily they'll grow back


x2 on that. Probably damaged in transport and will grow back.


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## Sandy Landau

The roots of water lettuce fall off easily when you move them from tank to tank but the stuff grows very fast and in a month you'll have long roots and so much water lettuce that you'll be begging people to take it off your hands.


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## kaisa

haha i hope so  

Once they get established and if the conditions are right do the roots stay on fairly well or is it considered a messy plant and will always be dropping some roots and making a mess?


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## punchbuggy

i would love some of that water lettuce kaisa!


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## kaisa

Sure I'll give you some once it is doing better and when I have more to give. Just message me in a couple weeks and you can come get some


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## Scholz

kaisa said:


> haha i hope so
> 
> Once they get established and if the conditions are right do the roots stay on fairly well or is it considered a messy plant and will always be dropping some roots and making a mess?


Roots stay on fine it's jst handling that damages them....


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## Captured Moments

If the plants and roots are healthy, the roots are not that delicate. You will need to handle them quite roughly for the roots to break off.


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