I ended up buying Cryptocoryne Lucens instead of Parve was that a mistake?

[maverick786us]

Based on my main article about my next Aquascape, where I am using DSM.

M

Thread 'My next aquascape'

6 Dec 2024

Tomorrow I am going to buy the hard scape material for my next aquascape it’s a medium sized tank with dimensions 24 x 18 x 18 inches.

The hard scape will be 2 land masses on both sides of the tank. On the foreground there will be a river that will keep narrowing down as it passes between these land masses. Something similar to what you see in this video



But I don’t have that bonsai so I will try to create something like this using rocks and spider wood. When it comes to planting the hard scape it’s always going to be Anubias, Java fern, trident fern and...

• maverick786us
• Replies: 16
• Forum: Journals

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If you take a look at the last picture in that thread I realized that I wasted too much space on the river in the foreground. Now it's too late for me to rescape and narrow down the river. But I thought I can make it look beautiful and natural by planting some slow growing on the river that will take few inches. The front portion of the river will still remain without any plant.



I don't want that portion of the river to form thick carpet or be a dense jungle. Thats why I decided go for very slow growing grass which I will plant sparsely. I was planning to buy Cryptocoryne parve but ended up buying Cryptocoryne Lucens. Whats you suggestion

 

[Aqua360]

Lucens vs parva will be a big difference in size, in your example above i would definitely suggest parva for what you're trying to achieve, personally speaking

 

[maverick786us]

I really appreciate your advice but I think its it's too late for that, I will try to trim it if they get too large. This is how it looks like. I also added Hydrocotyle Tripartite on the sand. These plants don't have dense leaves.

 

[ElleDee]

I've never grown parva, but Lucens has gotten from 1.5 to 3" for me depending on the tank/location.

 

[maverick786us]

I've never grown parva, but Lucens has gotten from 1.5 to 3" for me depending on the tank/location.

How does it looks when it grows up? I hope like Parva its a slow growing plant. I want those river plants to grow slow. Lol

 

[ElleDee]

How does it looks when it grows up? I hope like Parva its a slow growing plant. I want those river plants to grow slow. Lol

Well, I don't inject CO2, so everything grows pretty slowly for me. I had some in a tank I took down recently and took a picture of the largest plant.


This plant was started from tissue culture about 2 years earlier, but many of the other plantlet from the TC cup were half the height and they all looked pretty healthy. Given how many people I've heard complain about parva, I think Lucens is pretty underrated as a foreground plant.

 

[maverick786us]

I was rather looking for Crypt Parve. But the dealer from whom I buy plants said that if I want to make it feel like some shallow river bank with grass, I should go for Crypt Lucens, it has narrow leaves compared to Parve what he didn't tell me was that it grows bigger than parve.

 

[maverick786us]

Well, I don't inject CO2, so everything grows pretty slowly for me. I had some in a tank I took down recently and took a picture of the largest plant.

View attachment 224970
This plant was started from tissue culture about 2 years earlier, but many of the other plantlet from the TC cup were half the height and they all looked pretty healthy. Given how many people I've heard complain about parva, I think Lucens is pretty underrated as a foreground plant.

I think anything less than 2 inches should be fine for my use case otherwise I always have the option to trim it. I will use CO2 so I hope that makes the color of this grass more vibrant.