couple of elodea Qs

[latte]

My elodea stems are throwing off roots. Some of these are as high as halfway up the plant, going all the way down to the gravel. Is this normal? Why is it making roots? I always thought that it preferred to float around.

Also, the original stems I bought have started to branch off. The actual stem part of these branch-offs are a little brown/red in colour, this seems to happen to the ones closest to the light. Is this normal? A sign of malnutrition?

It's literally growing like a weed in my tank, which I'm both happy with and concerned with. One, I'm going to have to thin it out (laziness for you ) and two, I'm assuming it sucks out nutrients out of the water faster than my other plants because it's growing so fast.

[mikedmatthews]

stems prefer to be planted, but are strong enough to survive floating and will try to root themselves.  its normal.

[latte]

Thanks! Yay my plants are normal

[Carr]

Many plants will get a darker brown or red color when they get more light. Probably this is what you are seeing on the parts that are getting more light.