Hydrocotyle leucocephala help

[chickennublet]

Hello everyone

Having some difficulty growing this plant. It's a bit of a shocker because everything I've read about this plant seems to suggest that it is a weed that can grow well in a wide range of conditions.

I've had a few stems for about 3 weeks now and they have hardly grown at all. They also lost some of their old leaves and in some of them, parts of their stems appear to have yellowed and and might be starting to rot.

The tank they are in is not very bright and has no supplemental CO2. There are not a lot of plants in there at all, so it does not get much fertilisation either. Livestock are 13 Gastrodermus hastatus and an unknown number of red cherry shrimp. I kept them anchored down with a plant weight but have decided to try them floating for now. I'd like to ask:

1. Do they prefer to be floating?
2. I find them rather messy when floating and I already have other floating plants in there. Will they root and possibly grow better if I plant them in aquasoil? Or will they do better floating?

Thank you!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Do they prefer to be floating?

They do.

cheers Darrel

 

[Connswater]

not very bright

I found it ultimately a bit of a nuisance, grows like crazy with bright light and some CO2, but will quickly go pale without enough accessible iron. My tank is very well lit, some might say over illuminated It tends to grow to the light, like most stem plants really, hits the surface, then grows horizontally and if given the chance grows emerged leaves, two or three deep in damp spots. I liked it, but it is a real thug in the right conditions, thought I had trimmed it, but actually it all ended up on the compost heap, it was inter twinned with Taiwan numphoides, but not that easily confused leaves, except by me that is, I've still got plenty of the latter, another lovely plant and another thug in my tank. There is a lot to be said for crypts!

 

[shangman]

I’ve grown this plant well in both high and low tech, and every time it grows much better at the surface. It doesn’t really root properly, it’s more like an epiphyte that quickly grows across hardscape/amongst other plants. I don’t let it float, I attach it to hardscape that grows up to/near the surface like a branch of wood. Think of it like a climbing plant that needs a support to grow nicely. When it really likes you it starts to stick the leaves out of the surface of the water and grow emersed which looks great too.

It does like a lot of light, it might need higher light to thrive in your tank if it’s suffering that much. It likes nutrients, but I’ve kept it going in low-nutrient tanks too, where it just grows smaller leaves