Water sprite question

[Tetra1990]

In my 10 betta tank, I have a very large water sprite that has kinda taken over. I like it as does my betta, he sleeps in it. I woke up this morning, turned on the tank light and seen a stalk had sprouted out of the water/tank where the filter cutout is. If I leave it alone, will it flower?

 

[Fishdude3233]

Yes I think it may i will have to do a quick web search though lol

 

[Tetra1990]

Ok I'm opin no hurry, it has small buds on the stalk. I'm pretty excited.

 

[Rivercats]

No it won't flower but you can let it grow as big as you want out of water. I once let one of my Water Sprite plants grow over a foot tall out of a tank since it was topless. I think it looks cool.

 

[Tetra1990]

Thank you river cats, hope you'd chime in I'd love to have my 10g topless or cut some egg crate to fit the top and let it just grow crazy. But what would I do with my light? I doubt my betta would jump out, yeah I know it could happen, he's pretty chill except when it comes to tank mates. He killed everything except an assassin snail.

 

[Rivercats]

I've found over the years that many (not all) fish that tend to jump especially when startled tend to be much more settled when there is floating or plants growing above the water. I kind of let the Sprite just do it's thing up and around the light. What you could possibly do is remove the hood leaving just the light and only figure out a cover for the area that the sprite isn't growing out of. You'd kind of get the best of both worlds. There is one LFS here that has a planted 220g and in one entire 1/4 end of the tank is Water Sprite and they have let it grow out of the tank top over 2 feet tall. It's really cool looking. I kind of did that when I first set up the 220g. I used Sprite to help use excess nutrients being leached from the soil and I just let it grow out of the tank. When it got too tall I'd just cut it back some. You can have a lot of fun playing with it.