Weird broad lea water sprite

[jaketetra28]

Hi everyone! I am fairly new to "planted tanks" for my tank so I am quite confused about my floating water sprite. So when I purchased this water sprite from my LPS they just called it normal water sprite so when I got home I noticed it had larger leaves than the normal planted or floating l, so ok I googled it and long story short I could not find the type of water sprite I owned so I type in the difference between it and the normal one and I found that u had broad leafed water sprite (Broad-Leaf Water Sprite - Ceratopteris cornuta).

So my actual question is why is my water sprite growing plantlets on the leaves



I was sure water sprite grew plantlets on the stem?


Is this normal?

 

[FishCr8zy]

Water sprites, along with some other plants, propagate by producing babies on the ends of older leaves. Leave the plants there until they have decent root systems or they detach themselves.

 

[jaketetra28]

Ok thanks! I had no idea, thanks for telling me!

 

[misterc007]

I have some of that in my tank too. Be careful, it grows like crazy every month or so I pull a ton of that out of my tank. It will completely cover the top of your tank.

 

[jaketetra28]

I will! I've only had it for about a week now and it has grown a fair bit, it now has many "baby" plants growing on it

 

[Darkseid76]

I've had the same plant for years. If not trimmed regularly this plant will take over your tank.

You can also grow it completely submerged. It will grow less plantlets this way also. Give it some time and it will grow emersed leaves from it's floating form.

 

[jaketetra28]

I've had the same plant for years. If not trimmed regularly this plant will take over your tank.

You can also grow it completely submerged. It will grow less plantlets this way also. Give it some time and it will grow emersed leaves from it's floating form.

How do you recommend trimming it? Would you just remove the baby plants growing on it?

 

[Darkseid76]

Depends on how you want to grow it. I usually just trim the dead or dying branches and leaves. You can separate baby plants and toss them back in if you want more.

As the mother plant expands it will grow a longer root system, and grow outwards and upwards.