Tried find my own answer. Failed. Your turn.

[Cinnebuns]

I'm looking for a plant to go on a piece of decor. Ideally it would be small, have some red (or lots of red), not require co2 and relatively easy. Any suggestions of plants that may fit that?  

I'm also wondering something in general. When gluing a plant onto decor, does it need to be a moss or rhizome plant?  I was getting confused trying to find a plant myself cause it seems to me root feeders wouldn't work. Is this true?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Correct, roots will not work glued to rock. Only rhizone plants and moss glued will work....I'm thinking in some cases tying moss might work better. Most moss I've purchased on something is usually tied- but for whatever reason I can't get moss to grow in my tanks so take that information with a grain of salt. 

It seems to ME being a low tech tanker, there are VERY few red plants (only root plants I can think of) that will grow without co2 with a bright red. I do ok with Ludwigia Super Red but it's not as colorful as say in @Mmiller2001's set ups. It also does better with really bright light. I'm not even sure if there ARE red rhizone plants.....

Edited May 2, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[JoeQ]

An easy red you might consider is a tiger lotus, it's not specifically a rhizome plant. Rather its a  bulb plant and im assuming it can be glued, either by the bulb or detached and its base can be glued to an object. As for stems, AR and ludwigia are pretty much full proof (pending you find these plants already converted) 

[nabokovfan87]

thread for this one said the red plant is ludwigia super red

 

[AndreaW]

Cryptocoryne Wendtii has a reddish color. 

[Mmiller2001]

That's a tough one for sure. I think maybe going the cryptocoryne route and making it look like it's attached to something might work?

I know a few Bucephalandra can have some red in them. I find them to be terribly difficult to grow though.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

On 5/2/2022 at 10:38 AM, Cinnebuns said:

I'm looking for a plant to go on a piece of decor. Ideally it would be small, have some red (or lots of red), not require co2 and relatively easy. Any suggestions of plants that may fit that?  

I'm also wondering something in general. When gluing a plant onto decor, does it need to be a moss or rhizome plant?  I was getting confused trying to find a plant myself cause it seems to me root feeders wouldn't work. Is this true?

Hi @Cinnebuns

Red plants that stay small and can be attached to hardscape are not easy to find.  However some of the Bucephalandra species have some nice red highlights and do not require CO2.

There are several plants that are not rhizome species that can be attached to hardscape.  A couple that come to mind are Pogostemon helferi (which is found clinging to rocks in fast flowing rivers in Thailand) and Hygrophila pinnatifolia which has some red highlights and is a stem plant that attaches to hardscape.  -Roy

[FlyingFishKeeper]

Hi, it's not extremely red, but I have cardinal plant in one of my tanks right now. It's a rhizome plant i just shoved between a rock and the wall, but I imagine it would probably do fine with a bit of super glue. (

(Image source: https://aquaticarts.com/products/cardinal-plant. On the webpage it also mentions that the plant mostly shows the most vibrant colours when partially out of water, but can still show some of them when submerged which is a bit of a bummer)

[Torrey]

I have been going in every couple of weeks and wrapping the roots of my AR 'rosaeafolia' around a stick in my Scapes from Scraps tank. There's not a lot of room, making it a bit difficult. If I were to do it over again, I would grow the plants floating to get more root growth at each node, and *then* wrap longer stems plus roots around the stick.

 

The AR 'rosaeafolia' is much more attractive with vibrant coloration the closer it gets to the light. I am microdosing ferts daily, because it is a pico tank with shrimp, that may also be contributing to the intense coloration.

I am getting fresh stem growth from each node, I am not using CO2, and the light cycle is 4 on/ 3 off/ 4 on/3 off/3 on/7 off.

[LEFT TANK} You can see the 'rosaeafolia' in the upper left corner, it is growing from the stick on the left. You can see the most lush growth is right at the top with the light, the bits growing on the bottom on the left have longer stems and a longer internodal length. The bunch in the front right corner is growing out of the substrate and being trained up another stick. It is growing much thicker due to the benefits of the light between the two tanks.

You can also see Pogostemon stellatus growing out from behind the rock, and a piece being trained along the front center twig in the tank, with some pearlweed roots helping to hold it in place. Moss is wrapped along the back branches, and as it grows in will give the optical illusion of being much further back... helping to give the observer the perspective of a much larger, and deeper tank.

[RIGHT TANK} you can see Java windelov, milfoil, moss, and cyperus helferi supporting spots of pink in the rosaeafolia, and a deeper red in the ludwigia repens. There is also pearlweed growing (and pearling) closest to the side light on the left. This tank has a dwarf frogbit, pearlweed, and duckweed floating at the top, as well as a few small pieces of more AR rosaeafolia tissue culture that are rooting... I'm waiting for some actual stem growth in addition to the roots growing out of the leaves, though.