Brazilian Pennywort

[unfamous]

does anybody have any experience with this plant? i want to use this in a discus tank i am gonna set up...any info on this???

[djlen]

What would you like to know?
It's basically one of the easiest and most versatile plants around.
Can be grown in med. light, low light or practically no light.
Can be grown at 90° or 50°.
Can be grown as a floater or will root into the substrate, but the roots are not real viable and so it will do fine, in the substrate for about a month, and then should be uprooted and the tops re-planted as many stem plants require for optimum health.
It is also a great nutrient user.
Just a great all around plant.

Len

[djlen]

Here's a picture of the plant in question.

http://www.plantgeek.net/images/plantpics/Hleucocephala.jpg

You will note that each leaf has it's own set of roots and can be cut up and planted individually, making it also very easy to propagate.
As you can tell, I love this plant. It has saved my butt on numerous occasions when extra nutrients threatened to cause serous algae issues.:)

Len

[Abilor]

I have a pennywort plug, and it's a monster. In fact, I'm inadvertently doing live plant cycling, and my nitrogen levels are nonexistent because of this plant (and its java fern friends). I buried the plug half in and half out of my gravel substrate, and left some of the roots all over the place. I like it so much, I may dig it up like djlen said in a month and spread some of the cuttings to other parts of the tank. Great plant though for a noob like me...

[unfamous]

Thanx guys i am for sure gonna get some of this plant...how many would be good for a 100 gallon???
im not to sure about any other plants in the tank. maybe combamba, amazon sword, glosso, swordgrass....its kinda a south american biotope

[Abilor]

The only thing I was warned about is that thinking in terms of time, say one year, one pennywort will spread out, propogate, and most importantly, fill in the top of the aquarium, which will choke the light to the rest of your plants. In my case this is desirable, since glass cats feel at home in such an environment (despite being south asian fish under a brazilian plant), and the rest of my plants are low-light creeping things, or are at least meant to be. Don't know how this fits into your plan, but no matter how big your tank, pruning will be a concern eventually...