Hemianthus callitrichoides

[mfbonfante]

I have this plant since February, when I get it form Tropica. It comes in its plastic bucket, with rockwool. So I split the rockwool into three or four peaces, and arrange them into the gravel.

HC started to grow, but it did not attached to the gravel. Weeks later, almost all of it was floating on the surface.

The planting site was a well lighten spot, under the HQI lamp. Other plants like macranda, tenellus, quadricostatus, l aromatica, close to this spot are doing fine.

A have been asking some local pals about this, but roughly they have the same experience. One of them has success attaching HC to drift wood, placing it over a java moss patch, tightened with cotton thread.

Does anyone has a positive experience to share?. Any comments?

Regards,


Mariano

 

[jerime]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

I've experienced same problems with HC. I planted it in big bunche, placing some quartz on it to hold.
I've also noticed that corydoras and other cats playing with it, thus making it float. keep out of bottom dwelers at first, till it holds.

 

[quenton]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

I have this plant since February, when I get it form Tropica. It comes in its plastic bucket, with rockwool. So I split the rockwool into three or four peaces, and arrange them into the gravel.

HC started to grow, but it did not attached to the gravel. Weeks later, almost all of it was floating on the surface.

The planting site was a well lighten spot, under the HQI lamp. Other plants like macranda, tenellus, quadricostatus, l aromatica, close to this spot are doing fine.

A have been asking some local pals about this, but roughly they have the same experience. One of them has success attaching HC to drift wood, placing it over a java moss patch, tightened with cotton thread.

Does anyone has a positive experience to share?. Any comments?

Regards,


Mariano

Take the rockwool off -- as much as you can without badly damaging the roots. Its much easier for the plant to send out roots then.

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

It has grown like a weed for me, much like pearl grass does, not quite as easy, but not too far off either.

CO2/nutrients/light, seesm like you have that based on the other plants.

So the substrate is all that's left and planting methods.
ADA aqua soil really makes growing this plant very easy.

If anyone has their heart set on a nice HC lawn, use this, it'll save you time and frustration, I'm not saying you cannot have a nice rug of it without ADA AS, but it does make growing it downright easy.

I've done well with Onyx sand also.
I've never tried it in Flourite nor EC.
It did poorly in Flora base.
It grows very well emersed and on floating sponges.

I suggest separating the individual strands into 1-1.5" long single stems and angeling them into the substrate so that only about the top 3-4 leaves show, 80% or so of the stem is deep in the substrate, this wikll prevent the stems from floating out later and allow the plant to root.

From there it's easy.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[imatrout]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

I have it growing in three tanks, three different substrates. In the Flouite substrate I get it coming up all the time. In the sand substrate it stays down solid, you can hardly yank it out. In the Eco-complete it's half way in between. My conclusion is the roots are so thin that in a porous substrate it's hard to grab hold. In the sand it seems to grab well because ithe sand is so compact. Wj
ho knows?

 

[shugato]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

hello
do you need to trim hemianthus regularly like glosso? and what are its lighting /CO2 /fert requirements?
thanks
shugato

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

Nothing special nutrient wise.
You do not need to trim it nearly as much as gloss and it's less prone to turning yellow if you do not keep on things. Makes a nicer dense rug than gloss. Much nicer IMO than Gloss.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[ReefJones]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

Can anyone post a picture of a nice thick carpet of it? I would love to see it!
Reef

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

Here's a 20 gal tank witha rug starting after about 4 weeks. *8 weeks produced a rug 1" deep. You can mow it easier than Gloss and it always sells better than gloss.

L. pantanal, the red weed, R wallichii off the side, R macrandra, Eustralis, HC, downoni, some rare crypts buried in there, Tonia, Erio's, L. cuba etc

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Wet]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

Sweet tank.

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Hemianthus callitrichoides

The tank is about 20 years old.
I have two 20 gals that I've done test on and are about to be retired permanently.

I'm switching to scape size tanks now.
20's are okay, but I like 75 gal range and large cubes.

The tank is just a quick pic, but it has all these weeds folks claim are soooo hard to grow and must have this or that and must be only grown in a certain way etc.

I use EI on this tank, it never has any algae, uses ADA soil, has a higher fish load than what you see, 110w on a 20 gal tank, CO2 mist via an ADA diffuser.
No heater. Via Aqua 200 gal/hr canister.

I cut the tap with 75% RO, this gives me about KH3, GH of 5, I add GH booster at 1/4 teaspoon after the water change.

Nothing special, nothing that complicated, no secrets.

Tanks that grow the hard weeds so easily like this confirm my hypothesis time and time again about water column nutrients and ADA soil, about what is helping certain species do better under certain conditions etc.

It's very easy to understand what is going on once you are able to achieve excellent growth and have that as your standard.
Then when you do something ifferent, you can compare and see if the trade off is worth it to you.


Regards,
Tom Barr