LF: Mangroves

[BC Mosaic]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Superstore sells mangroves?

On occasion, yes (so I've been told).

dsaundrey started in fresh water. I plan on putting them into my above reef tank's refugium. The mangrove drops it's seed and because of its' shape it stabs the substrate and then eventually sprouts. They grow in bayous and so receive both fresh water and salt water on a daily basis (tides).

Still am interested in a group buy

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

You need to acclimate mangroves quite slowly if they have been in freshwater. Often they will drop their leaves after shipping due to stress but I have always had them grow back. The thing is, they do not really grow in freshwater naturally. From the research I have done, there are very, very few found far enough up estuaries to be in freshwater. I have been told not to buy mangroves that are raised in freshwater but I think it would still be worth a shot. If they are cheap. If they are in freshwater though, you do not have to worry as much about magnesium because they are not using it as much to filter out salt. The other way some mangroves filter salt is by dropping their leaves but I do not believe Red mangroves do this. The nice thing about Red mangroves as well is that they do not need a substrate to grow, they will just root down onto LR.

I lived very close to mangrove swamps and estuaries in Florida and they are such cool trees. Its amazing how big and intricate their roots get. Even in Florida its hard and very expensive to get big mangroves because they are protected. You had to buy cultured trees and I used to see 4-5' trees selling for hundreds.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Oh by the way, what Superstore did you guys see them in? When was it?

[spoot]

I got the superstore ones, but was unable to recouperate it (from the coquitlam superstore). I've heard that the only time you can change the water salinity is when they are still in the pod form.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by spoot

I got the superstore ones, but was unable to recouperate it (from the coquitlam superstore). I've heard that the only time you can change the water salinity is when they are still in the pod form.

Yeah this is what I have heard too. I don't think the chances of going from freshwater to saltwater are very good. There is proof form earlier in the thread that it can be done but since they are not freshwater plants, its not a good start for them.

[justinl]

I got four from the coquitlam superstore and i think i tried to acclimate them too fast... they shriveled and died. And yeah they only get them sporadically. Lesson: I would only ever try that again with propagules (the ones with no roots). Not worth the time and effort on the ones with roots since the acclimation has to take a couple months. Might as well wait for J&L to get some... those ones are good imo.

yes they are a saltwater plant, but for our purposes, they *can* live in either salt or fresh. In the wild they probably just can't compete with the other plants that are designed for freshwater.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by justinl

I got four from the coquitlam superstore and i think i tried to acclimate them too fast... they shriveled and died. And yeah they only get them sporadically. Lesson: I would only ever try that again with propagules (the ones with no roots). Not worth the time and effort on the ones with roots since the acclimation has to take a couple months. Might as well wait for J&L to get some... those ones are good imo.

yes they are a saltwater plant, but for our purposes, they *can* live in either salt or fresh. In the wild they probably just can't compete with the other plants that are designed for freshwater.

From what I have learned most biologist really don't seem to know for sure why they are not found more in freshwater. Its kind of weird because they have to work so hard in saltwater to filter out the salt. You would think they would eventually migrate to freshwater but its the opposite. They stay in brackish/saltwater. There is obviously something in saltwater they need. Maybe the nutrients in the freshwater are not enough.



Anyways, still looking for as many as I can find if anyone has some for sale!