anacharis question

[Bristlenose Chuck]

Hello, I just bought my first live plant: 4 bunches of anacharis. My question is do I keep the rubberband around the bunch and just place it in the substrate or do I plant each stem individually? Also should I trim off all leaves that will be placed under the substrate or does it matter?
Thanks,
Chuck

[Slappy*McFish]

Yes, remove the rubberband and plant each stem about 1" apart, and do remove the leaves from the bottom of the stem that's going into the substrate.

I would plant the stems like this.. (the + represents each stem viewed from above)..

+ + + + +
_+ + + +
__+ + +

Rows of stems staggered with the shortest stems in front of the taller ones.

[Bristlenose Chuck]

Thanks Slappy

[NJ Devils Fan]

I hope you enjoy those anacharis. I got them as my first plant also and they are growing like crazy. Just like slappy said, remove the bottom leaves that will begoing into the substraight because if you don't, they could rot and cause the ctem to die. Thats wha happened to one of mine. I didn't know about the leaves at the bottom, and a week or so later, there was only a couple of leaves on the top and nothing on under. It looked rather ugly.

[Bristlenose Chuck]

Thanks NJ Devils Fan. I really like having them in my tank.

Does anyone know how tall they get?

-Chuck

[Skittyfish]

They grow and grow and grow. When they get tall enough for you, cut the tops off and plant them, you will soon have more than you know what to do with.

[Bristlenose Chuck]

I hope you are right. I only have about 1WPG lighting. If It does get out of control I have a 125 gallon full of herbivores that I can put some in. I hope they can keep in under control for me. :)

[Starry]

I've grown it in a small tank without any artificial light, except what came from the ceiling light. It didn't grow super fast or anything, but it did grow and survived. You should be fine.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Yea, I would put the clippings in the other tank for a treat. I am considering selling some of my clippings back to my LFS because of how much it grows.