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.

Well, just twist them out and be gentle as you can, shaking and giggling them loose slowly.

Give it a few minutes of doing this, they will be in there good.
They are from Rivers, so they need to keep from getting washed away, which iswhy they and Crypts often have massive roots, and then the rivers drop their levels and they are left high and dry.

Large roots imply nothing that they prefer nutrients in either location however(sediments), but that's what everyone seems to like to claim.

However, adding sediment ferts to stem plants also does the same general effect

So you could make the claim for all plants. Making these no different.

Regards,
Tom Barr