I want to remove an ozelot sword or two from my tank. I'm wondering what the best way is to do this. I was thinking that it might be best to just cut the roots straight down thru the substrate in a circle about 1" from the plant to avoid stirring up too much substrate. Is this the way to do it? Any better recommendations?

Reason for this question:
I have 2 ozelot swords in my 50G high (36"x15"x21") tank. The leaves are huge -- the 2 plants take up about half of the aquarium, which leaves room for little else and I know they cut down the flow in my tank significantly. Any time I prune off a few leaves, the flow increases dramatically -- it certainly wakes up my fish.

I've come to the conclusion that these plants are just too big for my aquarium (at least in the middle where I placed them -- perhaps in a corner they would have been less obtrusive). Personally, I think you would be hard-pressed to have these things fit in a 24" deep (front to back) tank, at least the variety I have.

Both of my ozelots have flower shoots that are now near the surface of my tank -- I definitely want to wait until they flower before pulling them out.

If anyone has any other thoughts, I'm happy to hear them.