Trimming Marsilea

[dskidmore]

I have a couple species of Marsilea growing like gangbusters in my tank. Only problem is that after awhile the snails eat off some of the leaves, leaving this little forest of empty stems.

I've been pulling up the chains, cutting out good plantlets, and replanting. Is there a better way? Should I just trim off the stems level with the ground?

 

[rkilling1]

You can do either. If you want it to grow faster, your best bet is to uproot it and cut it up. If you don't want to uproot them, then just cut em down.

 

[dskidmore]

Growing faster isn't a problem in this tank! Usually it's way too much work to re-plant as densely as the chains started.

 

[An t-iasg]

I have done it both ways - digging up the whole chain to trim or just trimming off a few leaves/stems. Sometimes the plant starts little side stems that end up being one thick and tangled area. I trim off stems down to the runner when I can to thin out the bulk in some area and it doesn't affect the growth.

 

[HiJaC]

Hi,

I spent 6 hours replanting Marsilea the other day to remove BBA, i feel your pain.

John

 

[Glenc]

I just trimmed my ten gallon, it is covered front to back. I took a small pair of scissors and trimmed it like grass. I then took a net and scooped out all the cuttings, which floated to the top fast. Wasn't that bad, made a bit of a mess but cleaned up quick. Nice flat looking lawn when I was done

 

[zenkatydid]

get rid of the snails!

 

[dskidmore]

get rid of the snails!

Wah? You must be crazy. The little damage they do to the Marsilea is massively outweighed by their cleaning utility. I never have a problem with hard green algae in tanks with these snails. The Marsilea quickly outgrows the rate the snails eat it at, only the older stems get munched on, the growing leaders continue to spread about the tank. Besides the fact I'd have to poison the tank to get them all. They're the only fauna in there and are fairly densely populated.

 

[Purrbox]

Sounds like the plants being eaten are only the older dying ones. In that situation it's good to have the snail eating them so that they don't poplute the aquarium while disintegrating. I agree, definately keep the snails.

 

[dskidmore]

Trimmed the Marsilea in-tank today. The segments with missing leaves are also missing roots, so if I could find the runner, I just cut the runner on each side and the stems would just float right out. Need finer scissors in the future though.