What to do when your Mangroves Arrive?

This is what I sent to those receiving mangroves in addition to what you will find in this document and the ones linked to it. I suggest you read them all as they all contain useful information.

When the mangroves arrive here is what I would like you to do and suggest: (I am going to copy the mailing list as there are a large number of hobbyists who are getting mangroves in tomorrow and Monday)

• have some aged saltwater ready (you can use aquarium water for instance),
• unpack the mangroves and rinse them in the above SW, no need for real thorough forceful rinsing though, just swish them gently through that water,
• leave them out of the water lying on a towel in the same room as where the aquarium is and let them slowly acclimate to the room's temperature for a while. An hour or so should be plenty but you can do so for longer as long as you keep the propagules (mangroves) moist by either spraying them with some water or by keeping the towel on which they are lying, moist. If you spray them spray with FW and spray the tops only. If the roots need spraying use SW,
• after this is completed follow the directions in the document on our web site and the linked document that shows how to insert them in styrofoam (www.athiel.com/lib11/manstart.htm)
• have some plant nutrient or better even, iron supplement available and start adding that to the sump. If you can find an iron test you want to try to get an iron ppm reading of 0.03 ppm or a little higher,
• if you have no test follow the directions on the label of the bottle but on the first couple of days double the dose as most of what you add will precipitate out,
• the temp of the water they go in should be around 78 F
• the salinity anywhere from 1.023 to 1.025
• the pH between 8.1 and 8.4
• you do not need to add phosphate or nitrate, there is plenty of it in the tank
• install them as shown in the linked doc referenced above,
• give them plenty of light as explained
• mangroves may go dormant when traveling or better said, shipped. To get them out of dormancy can take weeks. Iron and light and especially a few hours of sunlight a day will help a great deal in speeding this up
• mangroves that have knobs at the end where the roots are are beginning to grow roots. If they have roots you can't miss seeing them. The knobs though are the beginning of roots and are where you will see the first growth come out,
• mangroves may or may not have leaves. Most of the leaves they come with will die and new ones will grow. This is normal and should not alarm you
• new leaves start as a fine bright green pointy protrusion coming out at the top.

Albert

Check our Message Board at http://www.athiel.com/msgbrd Read on ....

What do you do when your Mangroves Arrive

Unpack the box and remove the propagules, or seedlings, from the plastic bag. Some propagules have more roots than others, but all have the beginning of roots (knobs). Some have longer roots than others and some have more than a few. The diversity is normal and does not mean that one is better than the other.

In essence, when knobs are present or when small roots are visible (whether white, translucent or red), the root growing process has started or is in progress. Some seedlings already have leaves and some have beginnings of leaves (real light green pointy and emerging from the top of the mangrove). Some show green leaves and others may show leaves that have started to turn brown. This is normal too. Some have green leaves but you may see brown spots on them. Again this is normal.

When taken out of the water, transported, stressed and so on, mangoves tend to do this and tend to go into what is called a state of dormancy. This is a state and a time where the propagule is susceptible to heat, drying, wrinkling, becoming soft and is generally prone to being damaged if proper care is not taken.

Often the leaves that they now have will die off and new ones will grow so, if you see this happen to yours, do not worry. New ones will grow as long as you are patient and follow the directions in this document and the one linked to a little lower (Update 6). Patience is what is really needed as when propagules go dormant, it can take several weeks of proper care before they actually come out of it. They may appear in bad shape to you but in reality they are not.

Your propagules have been acclimated to a salinity of 1.023-1.025. You do not need to acclimate them again. You can add them in the fashion described in the other documents directly to your sump. That other document and the one by a hobbyist who set them up and added graphics to the second document, both describe the process in far greater detail. This one just gives you supplemental information.

A document with plenty of information on how to set up your mangroves when they first arrive is: Update 6 on Your Newly Arrived Mangroves (for yet more instructions). Use the back button on your browser to come back to this document.

Here is an article that shows graphics of how to set your mangroves up. A Hobbyist (Mike) sets up his newly arrived mangrove seeds and shows you the graphics of how he has done so. Check this article for details and graphics on how to first set up your Mangrove Seeds.

Also check The Feb. Issue of EPARC's Newsletter for a detailed article on Mangroves

It is a good idea to give them plenty of light but the heat from the light source should "not" reach the top of the seedlings. This is also described in that first document. Make sure (again) that if you place your hand by, meaning close to the progagule you cannot feel the heat of the light! If too much heat reaches the actual part that is out of the water it will dry out.

If some of the roots have broken during transportation, remove the broken part only. Do not remove the entire root. Only the part that is damaged should be nipped off and thrown away. This happens and is not harmful or a problem. Roots regrow. It may take some time but, believe me, they do.

Rinse the mangrove in some tank water before placing them in your sump. This will remove loose material and any bad smell that may have been brought about from transportation. In the beginning, after you have them in your sump, spray the tops with some fresh water once a day. Although this is not absolutely necessary, it is helpful in preventing drying out. An aerosol spray bottle is perfect for this purpose.

Add an iron supplement, a plant or macro-algae fertilizer for a few weeks (an FW fertilizer or SW macro-algae fertilizer will do). Follow the directions on the label. This is an excellent idea to get root growth to continue or start, depending on the case. It also assists in keeping leaves green and getting new ones to grow. Once the mangroves take off they uptake their needed nutrients from the water (which is why you bought them to begin with). Before that it is a good idea to give them a little help so to speak.

If you use the Thiel Aqua Tech iron supplement or their Macro-Algae Fertilizer, here are the suggested dosages:

Pure Iron Supplement:

1. Day 1 to day 5: 2 drops per gallon of water in your system.
2. Day 6 to day 10: 1 drop per gallon of water in your system.
3. Day 11 and onwards if you continue: 1 drop per gallon in the system every other day. If you continue do so for 3 to 4 weeks maximum.

Macro-Algae Fertlizer:

1. From day 1 to day 15 add 1 drop per gallon of water in your system every day.
2. From day 16 to day 30 add 1 drop per gallon in your system every other day.

The results of over 13 months of testing Mangroves and their uptake of nutrients and impact on water quality. This doc is in in .rtf and Wordpad will open it. You can use a text editor as well. Make sure you line all columns up correctly. You will know you did so if all listings for the 6 tanks for pH results start with 8.3. Set your margins for 0.75 and it should line up. I will make an HTML out of it but have not been able to do so yet. If you use a Mac, use a text editor to view the document (just change the extension to txt or remove it).

Well to all who receive mangroves in the next day or two, or those who already have mangroves, these articles will give you quite a bit of additional information.

On our LSC page, you will find articles on Mangroves leading to the the Garf Site as well. Or you can go to The GARF Site directly and do a search for "mangroves", and you will find quite a bit of information there too.

Also check The EPARC Site as William Horst, its President, has written on mangroves as well.

Albert