Newbie Plant Guy needs some help

L

louiemarsh

AC Members
Oct 21, 2005
10
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Virginia
I have a small 12 gallon eclipse in my office. I have 1 betta and 2 small spotted cory cats (third cory died in the bag)

Anyhow, I have a few bunchs of plants that the fish store person said would be good in this situation. Forgive my spelling as I might have the name wrong. Anchribis (sp). its that very common bunch of green plants you see sold at every store on the planet.

My problem is this. It seems to be doing good, unless I try to anchor or bury the end in the gravel. The the lower portion dies and the upper part breaks off and floats all over. Its also very messy with leaves all over. Alot of the plant is growing like crazy and a very nice dark greeen color.

I would like a plant that I can plant in the gravel or atleast anchor it down and something that doesn't make such a mess. It would have to have kinda lower light needs.

Any suggestions would be awesome
 
I am taking a guess that it is Anacharis (Egeria najas). This plant gets most (if not all) of its nutrients from the water, not the gravel. When I first rooted my Anacharis, the bottom part that was below the substrate did indeed die.

Anacharis in general is a lower light plant and can do well in many types of tanks. But, it can be very particular. Do you use Flourish Excel? It has been know to kill off anacharis.

Further, when you plant the anacharis in the gravel, you should be very gentle as with all plants. I have planted very thick stems as well as very thin stems of anacharis and not had much issue. What is the depth of your gravel? What is the lighting wattage? How often do you do water changes and how much?

Just a start.

Aries
 
I tried planting them without much success.

Now I just go to my LFS and get them to give me some plant weights,then I just weigh them down so they stay pretty much in the general area I put them.
 
on mine i carefully push them into the gravel, and the side on the bottom does turn white and some of it may rot a lil but it doesnt float back to the top on its own, i suspect that the cory is disterbing the plants... i just tied mine to some shells that had holes in them and weighted them down, if u wait long enough they wil grow some roots, although they are kinduf puny, so keep the waits on.
 
It's the leaves that rot and turn the stem into mush. I've anacharis planted all over my tanks and no rotting. Here's how to plant them:

Carefully strip all the leaves from the bottom of the stalk for about 2". You want the stalk bare, but try not to injure it.

Stick the bare ends in the substrate and leave about ¼" of no leaf stalk above the groundline.

Should be no rotting with this method and they will form roots and anchor in the substrate where you stripped the leaves. Takes awhile, however, and you can accidentally uproot them gravel vacuuming.

Roan
 
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