Question about pruning

[jsrevenaugh]

After reading many posts about the importance of good circulation, I have a question. A corner of my tank is planted with Ludwigia Repens which has developed a dense network of root-like tendrils in the water. While the individual tendrils are thin, there are so many I that flow through the area is very slow.

So here's the question: can I prune those "tendrils?" Or will I kill the plants?

 

[VaughnH]

The tendrils are aerial roots, common to almost all stem plants. You can trim them, leave them alone, or prune off the rootless tops of the plants, discard the rooted bottoms and replant the tops. I think the mass of aerial roots eventually looks terrible so I always end up pruning and replanting the tops. That also gets rid of the by then leafless bottoms.