marsilea minuta sprouts

[mellowvision]

I have what I believe to be long thin chains sprouting up in one of my tanks, at a really fast rate. I think they're marsilea minuta, which I have a lot of in the tank, but am not positive... each chain has what looks like a 1/6" round leaf at each node, with about a half inch in between each node, and no stems. these are very fine and light green.

right now, I've been encouraging them to wrap around the filter intake foam. I'm wondering how soon I should be planning on planting them for optimum growth. They are currently in a high light 10 gallon, but will be planted in a medium light 20-40 gallon, tbd.

Should I plant them asap or let them develop more floating and then plant?
do I just bury the whole chain?

[Quartermain]

I believe it should be planted. I grow quadrifolia in my 40 gal, similar to minuta but taller. To be honest I didn't know you could grow this type of plant floating.

[mellowvision]

it was sold to me floating... and at the same LFS I bought it at, I saw it floating in the state I have it currently, intertwined with riccia and other stuff.

[Quartermain]

Here's the quadrifolia growing in my 40 gal.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y165/Quartermain/40%20Gal%20Planted%20Aquarium/IMG_3061.jpg

You can see the runner normally grows under the substrate so as long as the leaves are above ground it should establish roots and do just fine.

[mellowvision]

yes, I have loads of the stuff. it's all growing fine. what I'm really curious about is how to best use the stings of micro plant it seems to produce, not the normal runners it shoots off along the surface. It has been producing these thin, fine offshoots that are like hairs with nodes every 1/2"... they are not rooting at all.