Wisteria vs Water Sprite, either any tougher?

[MartinBlank]

So I have some Wisteria currently. I really like the looks of it and it grows well and I had been hoping it could fill the roll of quick growing / nutrient gobbler / oxygenation powerhouse.

Unfortunately I think one of my fish (either the Platies or the Dwarf Gourami) likes to nibble at it, as every day I have various amounts of bits of Wisteria.. from small pieces to big clumps... floating. And my bunch of Wisteria is now much much smaller.

I never see them doing this but its the only thing I can think of. The plants are not in a high flow area at all.

Water Sprite has very similar properties and looks almost the same. Any chance it would be more resistant to nibbling / playful fish?

Thanks

 

[Gillie]

Both plants are pretty tough, but I don't really think that one is tougher than the other as far as getting ripped apart, if you don't have much space to spare then stay with the wisteria. The watersprite is a rosette fern instead of a stem plant and can grow quickly out of control. I started with a 4'' watersprite plantlet in a 5.5 gallon and in 3 weeks it was 12'' tall and took up almost half of the tank, but if you have a good sized tank the watersprite might be a better choice IMO, plus it looks a bit nicer.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I think water sprite might be a tad more tough. Wisteria has a couple different looks. In high light, it didn't 'branch' out like the water sprite, it was more broad leaved. It was easily torn apart. My barbs destroyed a lot of my plants, but never bothered the water sprite.

 

[Sparky74]

I agree lighting makes a huge difference with the wisteria...

I upgraded my lights and the new growth all came in totally different. Wish my Barbs would rip some of it up lol. I think I cut it more than my lawn

 

[MartinBlank]

Ok, I have a 75 so I do have plenty of room. I think what I might do is get some of both and we'll just see

I have dual T5HO lights over the 75 (24 inches deep) so I am at 1.44 WPG, but on other charts I am considered medium light with 2 T5HO lights 24 inches above the bottom of the tank...

Anyway... I will order a couple bunches of both and will keep you posted if the fish will leave one or the other alone

 

[Sparky74]

Once my Wisteria got long, I would take the longest "branches" and bury most of it in the substrate, and let it pop out further down the tank.

The places where I buried it rooted so deep that when i tried to pull it out, it moved a piece of driftwood a 1/4 of the way across the tank Roots were all over. I had it spread across whole 55gal rather fast from one small plant.

My Barbs don't touch it. Only time they did was when I had some what I think was green hair algae on some of the plants. They would just grab at the algae hairs and pull it off, but left plant itself alone. My lobster on the other hand likes to redecorate the plants and he is john deere with the grass lol