hornwort growth?

[wishbone]

My hornwort has grown over an inch in less than a week? Does this stuff normally grow this fast?!?

 

[wishbone]

before:

One week later:

That just seems odd to me?

 

[aquazen]

You betcha. I have to toss mine every other week. Your's look rather nice and bushy. You must have some nice lighting.

 

[wishbone]

hah this was suppose to be a low maintenance plant! That's crazy! =) I have 2x65w CF coralife and my tank is REALLY tall. So I'd call the lighting adequate but nothing special.

That's neat though, I guess I think of something more creative to do with it. Time to rearrange the tank again maybe.

 

[Toirtis]

It can grow faster....the stuff I keep in a rubbermaid tub in my yard each summer pretty much doubles in about 15 days.

 

[Quake2player]

Hornwort's been on my hit list as a possible "next" plant to purchase if I order online. I've read a few times here about the needles shedding on hornworts... what's your experience so far? Also, there are 2 plants referred to as hornworts:

Ceratophyllum submersum
Ceratophyllum demersum

According to plantgeek.net, they say the demersum variety is "harder rougher stem leaves"... so does this mean it'd shed less?

Whishbone, I love those tall pieces of driftwood... I think I need a tall piece similiar to those to finish off my driftwood "lookl" .

 

[wishbone]

I haven't had problems with needles yet, but pieces do seem to break off every so often. It's been easy to clean up, but it isn't the cleanest plant I've ever seen.

 

[czcz]

If you dont mind snails, or are willing to inspect and clean, you may be able to find hornwort at a local plant nursery. Mine doesn't really shed either; fwiw I leave them floating and break off old pieces often.

 

[fish_4_all]

The hornwort I had grew really fast at the tips but the lower sections didn't and shed their leaves really bad. My anacharis on the other hand, especially the thicker species has grown more than 6 inches in less than 10 days. I like the anacharis because of less mess but the hornwort provided better cover for the sword babies. I think I will have to try it again now that I am up to 1.5 watts per gallon.

 

[wishbone]

The hornwort I had grew really fast at the tips but the lower sections didn't and shed their leaves really bad. My anacharis on the other hand, especially the thicker species has grown more than 6 inches in less than 10 days. I like the anacharis because of less mess but the hornwort provided better cover for the sword babies. I think I will have to try it again now that I am up to 1.5 watts per gallon.

I'm thinking of switching to anacharis. What variety is the "thicker" variety?

 

[fish_4_all]

There is Egeria najas, Egeria densa, or so I have been told. The densa is supposed to be the thicker one. All I can do is post a picture I have and show you what to look for.

If I could get my hornwort to grow like that and not lose all the lower leaves I would get some of that again. I just need to switch my substrate as I am still using epoxy gravel. I know my fish probably hate it, especially my C. trilineatus but I have to set up a new tank and cycle it before switching. It looks like you are using a course sand or fine gravel so I will try that as I wanted to anyway.

The greener one is the one that grows so fast, try to find it the other anacharis doesn't grow anywhere near as fast, not in my tank anyway.

 

[wishbone]

cool thanks for the pic fish_4_all. I think I'll check my LFS next week for some anacharis and maybe just leave some hornwort on the surface for my gouramis since they seem to really like that.

I have "natural" river gravel that I bought from my LFS. It's what I would call a fine gravel and supposedly was taken from a natural source. (not sure if that's good or bad) It does look very natural and seems to make for adequate planting.

 

[fish_4_all]

About my anacharis, some of the older plants that looked kind of sickly are now growing very well. Some of them have the denser type growing while others that are rejuvinated have the thinner leaves. I think it was a combination of the flourescent light of 15 watts and the fact I put peanut butter lids over my stacks from my undergravel filter to limits water agitiation. Since I did that all of my plants have gone wild. My mini java fern has new plants growing on almost every leaf, my java moss is getting longer and longer, and my anacharis is growing like a weed. My fish seem happier too and the amount of waste I suck up when I vaccum the gravel is minimul compared to when the plants weren't doing so well.

Check out ebay and do a search for anacharis or hornwort or elodea, there is a ton of it on there.

The seller aquatic6414 has some really good deals, I think so anyway. I think that they have both anacharis and hornwort so might be time to make a dense backdrop that would hide everything in the back of the tank.

Best of luck with them wherever you get them.

 

[fish_4_all]

Also, there are 2 plants referred to as hornworts:

Ceratophyllum submersum
Ceratophyllum demersum

.

I got some hornwort from my local fish shop and they think it was the demersum because it lost almost all of it's leaves in a matter of 2 days. According to my lfs it is a cold water species. The submersum is supposed to be a tropical species and do better in warm water.


Wishbone, try to find out what species it is. I would really like to have some that grows that well so I can break up and fill out the back wall of my anacharis. If you get me the species I won't have to play net the leaves again.

 

[wishbone]

Also, there are 2 plants referred to as hornworts:

Ceratophyllum submersum
Ceratophyllum demersum

.

I got some hornwort from my local fish shop and they think it was the demersum because it lost almost all of it's leaves in a matter of 2 days. According to my lfs it is a cold water species. The submersum is supposed to be a tropical species and do better in warm water.


Wishbone, try to find out what species it is. I would really like to have some that grows that well so I can break up and fill out the back wall of my anacharis. If you get me the species I won't have to play net the leaves again.

I purchased Ceratophyllum submersum from www.azgardens.com. It did end up being rather messy and I decided to pull all of it and try anacharis instead. It wasn't too bad when you didn't touch it, but when doing PWCs and trimming it it got a bit much for my taste.

 

[SittingDuck]

I just picked some up 4 days ago and it's grown about 6 inches since I got it. It must be a weed of some kind, cause at the rate it's growing it'll be out of the tank by tomorrow!

I've done a PWC with it already and have had very few leaves break off. Of course, I don't dump the bucket right on top of the plant...

I must say, I'm very impressed with how it's doing so far....

 

[webmoose]

I have this and it grows very fast in my tank as well. If it does not receive enought light it will shed. I had the lights on a smaller tank off for a few days and started gettting som shedding....

Mooooose