NAME THAT PLANT

[Odd Duck]

On 2/7/2022 at 3:30 PM, Guppy Guy said:

Here’s a new one. I found a leaf that snuck in on some java moss, and it grew a little. What is it? Is it guppy grass? I know that it isn’t water wisteria.

 

 

Looks like water sprite.

[Torrey]

On 2/7/2022 at 2:30 PM, Guppy Guy said:

Here’s a new one. I found a leaf that snuck in on some java moss, and it grew a little. What is it? Is it guppy grass? I know that it isn’t water wisteria.

 

 

Water sprite!

It has completely different leaf structure in the water, than when grown out of the water. 

Above water growth^

And below the waterline

It is great for stabilizing soil, just be prepared to trim... a lot.

See each of those light green "balls" at the tips and junctures of the watersprite fronds?

Trim off one stem, float it in the water, and every. Single. One. Will sprout roots and leaves, generating an entirely new plant.

Each stem of fronds can grow up to 24" if given the space.

And it is absolutely awesome at removing nitrates from the water. 

[Guppy Guy]

Wow, Thanks! It sure sound like a great plant to have, especially since mine was a free hitchhiker!

[JettsPapa]

On 2/8/2022 at 8:00 AM, Guppy Guy said:

Wow, Thanks! It sure sound like a great plant to have, especially since mine was a free hitchhiker!

It is.  It grows planted or floating (it does better floating for me, but others may get different results).  Also, I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but it's either a fern, or related to ferns, so if a piece of it breaks off it will grow a new plant.

[Torrey]

I have a link for everyone, that while it's not technically a plant, it is the secret to plant success!

 

 

[drewzero1]

Here's a two-fer: some freebie hitchhikers that came with a bundle of salvinia I picked up today.

I'd imagine it's probably too soon to tell on the grassy one with the roots, but wonder if anybody knows about the feathery stem plant, and would love any tips on planting to help them thrive/survive.

 

Edited June 24, 2022 by drewzero1

[Guppysnail]

On 6/24/2022 at 12:02 AM, drewzero1 said:

Here's a two-fer: some freebie hitchhikers that came with a bundle of salvinia I picked up today.

I'd imagine it's probably too soon to tell on the grassy one with the roots, but wonder if anybody knows about the feathery stem plant, and would love any tips on planting to help them thrive/survive.

 

The one floating horizontally is hornwort. Great plant grows Fast if it’s happy. The rooted one looks like valisneria.  It looks possibly like the leaves twist so maybe Contortionist /corkscrew Val. Nice hitch hikers. 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Guppysnail

[JettsPapa]

I definitely agree with @Guppysnail about the hornwort.  I don't necessarily disagree about the val, but could it be Cryptocoryne spiralis?

[drewzero1]

On 6/24/2022 at 5:27 AM, Guppysnail said:

The one floating horizontally is hornwort. Great plant grows Fast if it’s happy. The rooted one looks like valisneria.  It looks possibly like the leaves twist so maybe Contortionist /corkscrew Val. Nice hitch hikers. 

 

On 6/24/2022 at 7:46 AM, JettsPapa said:

I definitely agree with @Guppysnail about the hornwort.  I don't necessarily disagree about the val, but could it be Cryptocoryne spiralis?

Awesome, that is great news either way! I've never seen any of those plants available locally and picked these up on my way home from vacation in a neighboring state. Should I try to plant or anchor the crypt|val to the substrate, or will it be okay floating for a bit?

[JettsPapa]

On 6/24/2022 at 7:59 AM, drewzero1 said:

 

Awesome, that is great news either way! I've never seen any of those plants available locally and picked these up on my way home from vacation in a neighboring state. Should I try to plant or anchor the crypt|val to the substrate, or will it be okay floating for a bit?

It should be okay floating for a while, but it will eventually need to be planted in the substrate.  Don't plant it too deep.  The crown (where the leaves come out) should be right at the top of the substrate.

Leave the hornwort floating.  It's one of the best plants for removing nitrates from the water.

[Guppysnail]

I have no experience with crypt spiral.  Val does “meh” for me. If that’s what crypt spiral also looks like @JettsPapa I may need to try that instead.  Does it get tall? 
@drewzero1 I hope you keep us updated after you do plant it.

[JettsPapa]

On 6/24/2022 at 8:28 AM, Guppysnail said:

I have no experience with crypt spiral.  Val does “meh” for me. If that’s what crypt spiral also looks like @JettsPapa I may need to try that instead.  Does it get tall? 
@drewzero1 I hope you keep us updated after you do plant it.

Does what get tall?  Cryptocoryne spiralis?  It gets fairly tall.  I have some where the leaves have reached the top of the water and started to lay over in a 20 gallon long tank.

[anewbie]

On 6/24/2022 at 9:24 AM, JettsPapa said:

Does what get tall?  Cryptocoryne spiralis?  It gets fairly tall.  I have some where the leaves have reached the top of the water and started to lay over in a 20 gallon long tank.

well.... 20 long isn't very tall... 😉

I have a few tiger and red spiralis in my 40B; the leaves wave around too much to get a true height but i think they can reach 14 or so inches with a little tender love and care. A lot of stretching also helps. Still nothing compares to the various vals that can easily grow more than 12 feet long.... 

[Torrey]

Y'all have no idea how wonderful it is to wake up and see this exchange!

@drewzero1 there's a post near the beginning of this content about hornwort. I'm on the cell sitting in the doc's waiting room, so not conducive for looking for links. Just scroll back to the 1st page I think?

[JettsPapa]

On 6/24/2022 at 9:48 AM, anewbie said:

well.... 20 long isn't very tall... 😉

I have a few tiger and red spiralis in my 40B; the leaves wave around too much to get a true height but i think they can reach 14 or so inches with a little tender love and care. A lot of stretching also helps. Still nothing compares to the various vals that can easily grow more than 12 feet long.... 

No, it's not.  I guess I meant that it's taller than many of the common crypts.

Edited June 24, 2022 by JettsPapa

[drewzero1]

On 6/24/2022 at 9:54 AM, Torrey said:

Y'all have no idea how wonderful it is to wake up and see this exchange!

@drewzero1 there's a post near the beginning of this content about hornwort. I'm on the cell sitting in the doc's waiting room, so not conducive for looking for links. Just scroll back to the 1st page I think?

I'll say it's wonderful! I've had mystery hitchhikers before, but never knew what they were or what to do with them, and they usually failed. Armed with knowledge I can give them a fighting chance.

I appreciate the info on hornwort from the first page. Good to know it likes calcium in the water, as I've got mollies that like that too.

[Guppy Guy]

All right, I have a new one! Whatever this is, it has been growing just under the gravel line, occasionally sprouting to the surface. Any ideas?

[JettsPapa]

On 8/5/2022 at 9:55 AM, Guppy Guy said:

All right, I have a new one! Whatever this is, it has been growing just under the gravel line, occasionally sprouting to the surface. Any ideas?

 

Süsswassertang

[Guppy Guy]

Nice! I’ve heard thats a good one. How did it get there though? None of the fish stores near me carry it.

[Odd Duck]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:03 PM, Guppy Guy said:

Nice! I’ve heard thats a good one. How did it get there though? None of the fish stores near me carry it.

Yep, Susswassertang.  Likely came in with a plant or fish.  It can start reproducing from very small fragments.  It’s very cool looking as it grows since it bunches up and makes fluffy looking mounds.  Ignore the dirty glass.  Pics from today from 2 different tanks.  All are Suss.  First 3 are one tank, last 2 the other tank where they hitched on the wood.  The last pic of the little mound wasn’t even visible when that piece of wood was put in the tank. That’s a tank with matten sponge for substrate over UGF.  The first tank has layered clay and pool filter sand with an ACO medium sponge filter and a small HOB.  That tank is overrun with Wolffia that I haven’t been able to clear.  I need to test RR on Wolffia.  When I do, I’ll add it to the RR thread.  Likely not happening until next month with the way things are going.

 

[JettsPapa]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:03 PM, Guppy Guy said:

Nice! I’ve heard thats a good one. How did it get there though? None of the fish stores near me carry it.

As @Odd Ducksaid, a very small piece probably came with fish or a plant, and it's very possible the person you got it from didn't know about it either.  Several years ago I ordered some from an individual on another forum I'm on.  I received a beautiful ball about the size of a tennis ball.  It gradually dwindled away until I thought it was all gone.  I assumed it came from much different water parameters than mine and couldn't handle the transition, or just couldn't survive in my high pH high TDS water.

Many months later I noticed a small piece of it, and it looked healthy.  Before I knew it I had enough to start selling some.

[Odd Duck]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:37 PM, JettsPapa said:

As @Odd Ducksaid, a very small piece probably came with fish or a plant, and it's very possible the person you got it from didn't know about it either.  Several years ago I ordered some from an individual on another forum I'm on.  I received a beautiful ball about the size of a tennis ball.  It gradually dwindled away until I thought it was all gone.  I assumed it came from much different water parameters than mine and couldn't handle the transition, or just couldn't survive in my high pH high TDS water.

Many months later I noticed a small piece of it, and it looked healthy.  Before I knew it I had enough to start selling some.

Same for me.  When I convert that sand bottom tank to UGF and matten, I’ll be selling some since it’s a bit overgrown in there.

[drewzero1]

I picked up some val (pretty sure) at a local swap, and it came with these long thick stems (with algae fuzz) and tiny, bright green leaves on top. Some kind of rotala maybe? The stems are similar to the hygrophilia in the foreground, but very different leaves.

There's an uprooted stem of the mystery plant right in front of the sponge filter, in case it helps to see the root structure.

[Torrey]

On 2/8/2022 at 7:34 AM, JettsPapa said:

It is.  It grows planted or floating (it does better floating for me, but others may get different results).  Also, I'm not sure of the exact terminology, but it's either a fern, or related to ferns, so if a piece of it breaks off it will grow a new plant.

It's in the fern family, just like  Süßwassertang.

On 8/23/2022 at 8:45 PM, drewzero1 said:

There's an uprooted stem of the mystery plant right in front of the sponge filter, in case it helps to see the root structure.

I would need to get my hands on it, but it looks like my Bacopa does under higher lights in cooler water. The brighter the lights, and the better the nutrition, the smaller and tighter the leaves in cooler water, until the tipping point is passed and the algae gets enough light to wipe it out.

This summer has been my exploration deep down the rabbit hole of plant nutritional deficiencies as the leading cause of problems in our plants.

For anyone interested, there's a lot of crossover from terrestrial plant research into our aquariums, if we are patient enough to take notes and apply the knowledge to our tanks. I have an experiment I started, that I'll give it's own dedicated thread as soon as I have it written up, and will document the plant growth in as real time as possible.

Anyone interested:

John Kempf, Dr Dykstra, and several others are linking poor soil with too much nitrogen, as well as disturbed soil, to poor quality "starving" plants. Interesting research that is easy to digest the information and then apply the knowledge!

Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't has been another (highly entertaining & adult humor) resource.

Wishing everyone an uneventful week!

 

[drewzero1]

On 10/31/2022 at 3:27 PM, Torrey said:

It's in the fern family, just like  Süßwassertang.

I would need to get my hands on it, but it looks like my Bacopa does under higher lights in cooler water. The brighter the lights, and the better the nutrition, the smaller and tighter the leaves in cooler water, until the tipping point is passed and the algae gets enough light to wipe it out.

This summer has been my exploration deep down the rabbit hole of plant nutritional deficiencies as the leading cause of problems in our plants.

For anyone interested, there's a lot of crossover from terrestrial plant research into our aquariums, if we are patient enough to take notes and apply the knowledge to our tanks. I have an experiment I started, that I'll give it's own dedicated thread as soon as I have it written up, and will document the plant growth in as real time as possible.

Anyone interested:

John Kempf, Dr Dykstra, and several others are linking poor soil with too much nitrogen, as well as disturbed soil, to poor quality "starving" plants. Interesting research that is easy to digest the information and then apply the knowledge!

Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't has been another (highly entertaining & adult humor) resource.

Wishing everyone an uneventful week!

 

Here's an update after a few months of growth. The leaves definitely seem to be getting longer but not broader. The paired-opposite, alternating-perpendicular leaf pattern definitely matches the bacopa in your pic.