Good foreground plant / carpet?

[Eric G]

I have looked at micro swords, but nor sure if I want to go that route. Was looking at the Cryptocoryne Lucens on aqaurium co-op, would these work out nice as a foreground plant and also a potential hiding area for fry? I have some baby fry, they have some hiding areas in the background plants, but wanted to give them more when they are swimming in the front. Watched one of my molly dalmations eat a fry yesterday 😪. Appreciate any recommendations as always.

[Ninjoma]

Crypt lucens might be a bit on the larger side for a foreground plant, but I think you could make it work depending on how tall your tank is. It grows very slow also. 

Here are some carpeting plants I've worked with that I would recommend:

Dwarf chain swords 

Japan

Dwarf sagarita (the grass on the right side) 

Monte carlo (looks good, can be kinda difficult to work with though) 

As for providing cover, I haven't done much breeding yet, so I'm not sure what works best for that. 

[knee]

I think hydrocotyle tripartita would provide really good cover for fry or smaller fish. I didn’t use it as a carpet but I did place it on my driftwood and I would see shrimp and smaller fish go in and out of the clump. The lampeye killifish I had would also lay eggs inside. 

[Tait_007]

I know I am currently trying a java moss carpet and it is going pretty well. You just have to trim it about once a month on the top to make it grow thicker and across the floor.

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 3/16/2023 at 1:48 PM, Eric G said:

I have looked at micro swords, but nor sure if I want to go that route. Was looking at the Cryptocoryne Lucens on aqaurium co-op, would these work out nice as a foreground plant and also a potential hiding area for fry? I have some baby fry, they have some hiding areas in the background plants, but wanted to give them more when they are swimming in the front. Watched one of my molly dalmations eat a fry yesterday 😪. Appreciate any recommendations as always.

What size tank and are you running CO2? You can do a low tech carpet but it takes a lot longer, or requires a bigger upfront investment in plants (that is, you could buy 40 pots of Cryptocoryne parva but it'll be expensive!). @Ninjoma had a lot of good suggestions. You might also like pearlweed, if you're willing to trim and replant a lot.

[Eric G]

On 3/16/2023 at 7:48 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

What size tank and are you running CO2? You can do a low tech carpet but it takes a lot longer, or requires a bigger upfront investment in plants (that is, you could buy 40 pots of Cryptocoryne parva but it'll be expensive!). @Ninjoma had a lot of good suggestions. You might also like pearlweed, if you're willing to trim and replant a lot.

30 gallon tank, no CO2

[CJhilljack]

On 3/16/2023 at 12:31 PM, knee said:

hydrocotyle tripartita

I have some of this in the 14g I set up 3 weeks ago, but it has melted to almost nothing. Any tips on getting this plant to thrive? I don't have, nor plan to have CO2. I did see a tip, maybe it was one of Cory's videos, about just letting it float, but I didn't see it until after I'd gone ahead and planted it. All I have now are whisps.

Aside from that, I haven't had much luck with carpeting. although this plant (which I've forgotten the name of) has at least been holding it's own & still looks healthy - it was planted in December. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 3/16/2023 at 7:55 PM, Eric G said:

30 gallon tank, no CO2

Ah geez, I should probably know this, but how tall is a 30 gallon tank? I asked because height matters for carpets because of how quickly light intensity falls relative to water depth, but I probably should have just asked for height in the first place.

On 3/16/2023 at 8:10 PM, CJhilljack said:

I have some of this in the 14g I set up 3 weeks ago, but it has melted to almost nothing. Any tips on getting this plant to thrive? I don't have, nor plan to have CO2. I did see a tip, maybe it was one of Cory's videos, about just letting it float, but I didn't see it until after I'd gone ahead and planted it. All I have now are whisps.

Aside from that, I haven't had much luck with carpeting. although this plant (which I've forgotten the name of) has at least been holding it's own & still looks healthy - it was planted in December. 

If that's dwarf sagittaria, and I think it is, I have it too, and it basically just sat there, doing nothing: not melting, not dying, but not really growing either. Then one day it seemed to decide it was ready and just started sending out runner after runner and has been doing great now in two low tech tanks for me. If yours was just planted in December, it might do the same.

[rockfisher]

I have a tank with a moss as ground cover.  It is what I think gives the best lawn look in an aquarium. I think it depends on what look you are going for. I have moss on branches so it look like trees in a lawn. 

[Eric G]

On 3/16/2023 at 8:51 PM, Rube_Goldfish said:

Ah geez, I should probably know this, but how tall is a 30 gallon tank? I asked because height matters for carpets because of how quickly light intensity falls relative to water depth, but I probably should have just asked for height in the first place.

 

Its around 15" in height

[JoeQ]

I'm big on pearl weed, IMO, it's a good easy foreground plant that grows like a stem and also provides good cover for fry!

[Lennie]

On 3/16/2023 at 10:38 PM, Tait_007 said:

I know I am currently trying a java moss carpet and it is going pretty well. You just have to trim it about once a month on the top to make it grow thicker and across the floor.

Sounds interesting!

Can you share a pic, if you don't mind?

Also how do you keep it algae free? 

[JoeQ]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:48 AM, Lennie said:

Sounds interesting!

Can you share a pic, if you don't mind?

Also how do you keep it algae free? 

Here is my little tuft of pearl weed, ideally you would break it apart and plant. I however have no patience so I planted as one big clump and opted on topping, then replanting the tops to form a carpet. As with any aquatic plants, growing healthy plants is the best defense against algae growing on them.

Edited March 17, 2023 by JoeQ

[Rube_Goldfish]

In the thread below, @Odd Duck tucks pearlweed stems into the substrate horizontal to encourage side shoots, to assist with growing it as a carpet. She explains it better than I can, though:

At 15 inches of water depth and without CO2 injection, I'd say temper your expectations of carpeting, but it could still be done with enough starting pots or enough patience (or both, really). Cryptocoryne parva would do it, expensively. Moss sounds promising, as does pearlweed. And I've had great success with dwarf sagittaria, eventually, in low tech set ups. Hydrocotyle tripartita "Japan" could also work, though mine is just barely hanging on, and certainly not carpeting. But there are options.

[Odd Duck]

If your main goal is saving fry, the Crypt parva just isn’t a good option.  It’s adorable in its tinyness (is that a word?), very slow growing, and so small it’s not going to be good fry cover.  Pearlweed is great cover for fry but I usually float it since livebearer fry tend to stay up higher in the tank.  There’s no reason why you couldn’t carpet with it if you’re willing to work with it at least once weekly, plus float some for upper tank cover.  Or float nearly anything that will grow fairly densely and tolerates floating.  All the standard surface floaters but dwarf water lettuce (if it’s legal in your area) and frogbit (either Amazon or American) are 2 of the best since they develop more extensive roots than most of the other surface floaters.

Any of the stem plants that will also be happy as floaters will also work.  Pearlweed of course, but water wisteria, water sprite, guppy grass, and honestly nearly any stem plant that grows vigorously enough, will serve as good cover for fry.  Something that’s fairly fine leaved for tiny fry to slip through but grows dense enough to form a good sight line block is the goal.

All the mosses - especially from the Vesicularia group like Java, Christmas, flame, anchor, weeping, mini weeping, pointed spear, spiky, etc, plus susswassertang (not a moss) the list goes on depending on your level of maintenance tolerance.

If your main goal is a carpet with fry protection as the secondary goal, then Helanthium tenellum (Pygmy Chain Sword) is excellent along with a number of dwarf sags, any number of grass-like plants (some do better with CO2), lots of mosses - those from the more “stemmy” types like Hookeriaceae, Cameroon, Jade Lotus, Distichophyllum, willow, giant willow, etc, will conform to being a carpet more easily with less mess and work than those in the Vesicularia group, but most will take longer to grow a full carpet, some take much longer.

Some people may notice I haven’t mentioned my beloved Fissidens group yet (soooo gorgeous).  They will eventually carpet well but don’t reliably get long/tall enough fronds to serve as good fry cover under most tank conditions.

If you have a type of plant (grassy, leafy, etc) you would prefer, we can help narrow it down more for you.

Edited to add pic of adorable but ridiculously slow growing Crypt parva (foreground).  I’m not sure even a guppy fry could hide under those leaves if I were ever to add fish into this tiny tank.  This stand of plants is about 2 years old, has about 4 total pots (one tissue culture, 3 of adult/mixed size plants), in this 2 gallon tank.  Fairly recently added Pink Panther in the background.  Even the biggest plants are only about 1” across the clumps, so leaves are about 1/2” long.

Edited March 19, 2023 by Odd Duck
To add pic. Edit again to fix typo.

[Tait_007]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:48 AM, Lennie said:

Can you share a pic, if you don't mind?

Also how do you keep it algae free? 

I’ll edit the post in a second once my lights turn on with a newer picture. My profile background was a picture of its progress right after my first trim but I’ve already had to do another one so I’ll take one real quick. 

As for algae, I just don’t. I have my light on for only 6 hours and I have this bamboo skewers with a frayed end that I use to twirl any hair algae off of it and the rest of the time I’ll use the same stick to swish any leftover food and poop into the water column. If it does get too bad I’ll wait for it to be time to trim and I’ll trim the algae part off and then manually remove it from the trimmings.

As you can see in the second picture it is not algae free. But it grows well and it is all alive so I do not care.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Tait_007
Added picture of moss carpet.