Hemianthus Callitrichoides "Baby Tears" lighting

[Marconis]

Hey guys. Went to the store today to pick up a piece of driftwood and some more Cardinal Tetras (I only have four now since two died from being sucked into the filter) and an Oto or two. Well, the bad weather here in NY delayed a lot of their shipments, so they were low on stock on tons of fish. I didn't drive 25 minutes for nothing, so I had a look at their plants. I was able to ID the Crypt that I last purchased (lucens), and almost thought of buying another one but the Baby Tears caught my attention. I didn't know anything about them, so I asked one of the employees and the owner if they do well under low light. The employee said he believed they did, and the owner said it shouldn't be a problem as he has them grown in low light in the store. So, I purchased it...it was too lush and nice, and it was only like $2.50, so whatever. I remembered reading about it on a low light list, but upon doing research when I came home I see that there is mixed info on it. Some say it is demanding in terms of light, others say it isn't. If it dies, I don't care because I got a sick piece of wood to compensate. What are your experiences with it?

Thanks!

 

[neilanh]

First, let's confirm what you got.

Hemianthus Micranthemoides is commonly referred to as Pearlgrass or Pearlweed, and Hemianthus callitrichoides is commonly called Dwarf Baby Tears.

Both, IME, need medium to med-high lighting to really flourish, but I have heard of some folks having success with HM in med-low to low light settings, so I'll be interested to hear how you do.

 

[Marconis]

First, let's confirm what you got.

Hemianthus Micranthemoides is commonly referred to as Pearlgrass, and Hemianthus callitrichoides is commonly called Dwarf Baby Tears.

Both, IME, need medium to med-high lighting to really flourish, but I have heard of some folks having success with HM in med-low to low light settings, so I'll be interested to hear how you do.

Whoops, I accidentally copied and pasted the incorrect name. I did indeed purchase Hemianthus callitrichoides. Is there any way to change my thread title? That will bother me, lol. I'm pretty excited to see if it dies or not. For some reason, the trial and error process of low light is really interesting despite the slow growth (even though that's why I hated low light the first time around). My Crypt still has old leaves melting, but it has already started to grow new leaves. It's cool.

 

[neilanh]

I'll fix your title for you =)

I love HC. Its a very cool little plant and has a great look to it, although eventually it'll need to be ripped out and replanted if it grows well for you (unless you like the hedge-look - LOL)

If you're not already, dosing with Excel has had very positive results in really getting this plant to grow too, so something to consider.

 

[Marconis]

Thanks Neilan.

I've been dosing with just plain old Flourish, not Excel. How will that fare? I was planning on picking up a bottle of Excel as well, though I am not sure how these two work when dosed together?

The plant came with a little clamp to keep it together; how should I go about planting this thing...should I leave it as is or make a carpet out of it?

 

[neilanh]

They're 2 different things. The "plain old Flourish" is nutrient supplementation, excel is a Carbon supplement (like a liquid version of having CO2 in your tank). The 2 work very well together as a team.

To plant HC, what you want to do is remove the clamp and break it into small pieces. Depending on how large your clump is, and how much manual labor you want to do today, break it up as small as you want ensuring that every piece has at least 1 leaf and a little bit of root structure to it. So what I'm trying to say is if you have a clump that's the size of your finger thick, then break it up into 10-20 pieces and plant them all individually.

If your clump is larger make a lot more pieces to plant - or if that's too much work just make some.

The idea is to spread it out in your tank, allow each piece to establish independantly and then eventually, if everything works out, they'll all start to grow and then grow into each other.

For reference, when I planted E. Parvula in my 125, I used 1-2 leaves and a piece of root and planted probably 150 "plantlets" in a 1" by 1" grid. HC, HM and Glosso all should be planted in the same manner. It just really depends on how much effort you want to put into it. If you plant it all as a single clump, it'll take much longer to spread out if that's what you're wanting to accomplish.

 

[Marconis]

I have nothing to do today, so I don't mind the labor at all, lol. Thanks a lot for that info, Neilan. Very very helpful. I need to go to Petsmart this week to get another timer for my frog tank, so I'll grab a bottle of Excel if they have it...gotta get good use out of my gift card. If not I'll just order it.

Looking forward to seeing how this plant does. Thanks again!

 

[Marconis]

Oh, one more thing. It should be planted with all but the leaves submerged, right?

 

[neilanh]

Yeah, bury it in there or it won't stay, but like you said the leaves need light.

 

[Marconis]

Planted a bunch of it. Can't take a picture because my brother's camera is with him at home. But man, the driftwood is incredible.

 

[neilanh]

No pics, no proof