# Floating Brackish Water Plants



## vrodolfo (Apr 7, 2011)

Does anyone know of any species of floating brackish water plants? 

The salinity will be in the range of 1.005 to 1.010...target SG will be 1.006 - 1.007 so its light brackish. 

Thanks for any info / advice.


----------



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

You could try Water Sprite. Very versatile plants. Grows nicely floated, looks totally different than it does if grown rooted in substrate. But it is somewhat salt tolerant, so if you give a chance and acclimate it slowly, water sprite should be ok at the salinity level you have in mind. 
Grown floating, it's a pretty, wide spreading plant with mostly flat leaves that have slightly ruffled edges. It grows new babies in the leaf margins, no matter how you grow it. If rooted into substrate, you get much finer leaves that look a bit like H. Difformis, or Water Wisteria. 
I find the potted or rooted ones often seem to have been grown emersed, so once below water most of the mature leaves and stems slowly die back. But you will get at least one or two gorgeous new sprouts complete with extensive roots about half way up the stems, and maybe the tips. Just trim off the new plants with their roots intact, and discard the rest, which is going to rot anyway.
The main problem is that you can't just drop them in brackish and expect them to grow well, no more than you could a fish. More or less the same thing happens as when you put emersed grown plants under water. Original growth will die off, but you should end up with several nice new plantlets that will be perfectly adapted. You can start with rooted pieces or floating ones, either way you'll end up with the floating leaf form eventually.
I'd probably float a few medium size plantlets or whole stems, starting with FW and gradually increase the salinity over a few weeks to your ideal level. You may well still lose all the old growth but it will shock the plant less and you should quickly get new growth that's adapted nicely. I'm going to try that myself, as it happens, because I have a lot of Water Sprite and grow it both floating and rooted. You'd never know they were the same plant by looking at them !


----------



## Amazongypsy (Oct 21, 2010)

I have had no problems keeping naja grass in a brackish puffer tank.


----------



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

That's interesting.. do you mean the plant also known as 'guppy grass' ? I had no idea it was brackish safe.. and I have a bunch, which I will now start acclimating so I can use it in the brackish tank I'm going to be setting up.


----------

