Betta bulbs

It's been about six weeks since I planted the "Betta bulbs" (Aponogeton sp., allegedly A. ulvaceus), so whatever's going to grow has probably grown. Apparently I planted four in the main tank, one in the Macropodus tank, and two in the plant tank.

They grew well in the plant tank. After about two weeks, one of the bulbs had sprouted, and after another week a flower spike broke the surface of the water. While the first one didn't expand, the plant has produced another four in rapid succession. The young inflorescence looks like the top picture. As it expands it ends up looking more like the lower image.

Shortly thereafter, the second bulb in the plant tank started growing, and it too has produced a succession of flowers. Both plants have also produced floating leaves.

Things were a bit different in the main tank. One of the bulbs floated up fairly soon, apparently dead. A second one eventually made it to the surface, and appears to be dead as well. I'm not entirely sure what happened to the other two - there's one plant that's either a young Aponogeton or a Cryptocoryne sucker, and another leaf that could be a second bulb. In both cases, the plants are small and could easily be something else. I haven't seen any sign of the bulb in the Macropodus tank, but that tank has become so heavily overgrown (since I upgraded from incandescent to compact fluorescent lighting) that I'm really not sure that I would be able to find it if it were growing.

Betta Bulb update

As I mentioned previously I planted several "Betta Bulbs" in my tanks a few weeks ago. While I haven't seen any signs of life in either my main tank or the Macropodus tank, I noticed something new in my plant tank about a week ago. Today I noticed a flower spike that had broken the surface of the water, and this evening I noticed a second plant.

One of my first thoughts was that while the plant could easily be an Aponogeton, I had my doubts as to whether it was Aponogeton ulvaceus (as the packaging claimed) - which is probably a good thing. Aponogeton ulvaceus tends to be a very large plant with broad, wavy leaves that presumably resemble the alga Ulva. One online description says the leaves are 3-10 cm broad. These plants appear to have far narrower leaves - at most a centimetre broad - but that might change as the plants get bigger. Perhaps the flowers will give me a better sense of what species I actually have, although there is mention of widespread hybrid origin of cultivated plants.

Betta Plant Bulbs

A few weeks ago I picked up a package of dried bulbs labelled "Betta Plant Bulbs" (Aponogeton ulvaceus). And then I put it aside and did nothing.

I finally got around to looking up what the species was like. On PlantGeek the species is described as:

A very striking plant with huge fluted and sometimes corkscrew leaves. This plant does best in a large aquarium where it will take over a large portion of the tank. It may or may not require a dormant period.

They also describe it as requiring "medium high" light, which probably means my tanks will be on the low end.

The package contained seven bulbs. I put four in my main tank, two in the plant tank and one in the Macropodus tank. While the package says "guaranteed to grow in 30 days" (or they will replace the bulb(s) that fail to grow), replacement requires that you (a) retain "proof of purchase" (did I keep the receipt?) and (b) that you return the bulb. Which would mean digging through the substrate and finding it. Since each bulb is worth about 50 cents, between postage and the disturbance to the tank, it's pretty safe to say that I won't be seeking a refund (which makes me a bad consumer).

Hopefully there'll be something to report within the next 30 days.