# Plant name/description?



## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

Good Afternoon Fellow Hobbyist!!

I am trying to find the name for one of the plants that I have in my tank... I think it might be the Rotala. But I am not sure.

can anyone help me out?

A bit of a description of it:

- fast grower (like weed in a garden hahaha)
- can get roots growing from below leafs
- can get trimmed and replanted for more plants.
- green plant (leafs do not turn red like the Rotala Indica hence my confusion)


thanks


----------



## cb1021 (Sep 21, 2009)

hygro polysperma??


----------



## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

cb1021 said:


> hygro polysperma??


thanks for the reply CB1021, just googled that name and I think it might be the right one

The entry in Wikipedia made me laugh

" It is listed on the Federal Noxious Weed List in the US and is illegal to import and sell in a number of states"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygrophila_polysperma


----------



## Reckon (Mar 6, 2013)

cb1021 said:


> hygro polysperma??


I'm also fairly certain this is the plant

very invasive in warmer waters


----------



## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

Reckon said:


> I'm also fairly certain this is the plant
> 
> very invasive in warmer waters


haha I can just imagine, it grows rather quick on my tank.

would it be recomended to remove completely from my tank? or keep it and just trim as required?


----------



## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

and from what I read online it might be bad with other plants, but my swords are doing rather great! one of them has already outgrown my tank.....


----------



## Reckon (Mar 6, 2013)

Nah, the only thing H. Polysperma can do is grow so much it cuts off the light from any slower growing plant below it. I used to keep a similarly fast growing plant: egeria densa, I would just compost large portions of the stuff when it got too overgrown.


----------



## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

Reckon said:


> Nah, the only thing H. Polysperma can do is grow so much it cuts off the light from any slower growing plant below it. I used to keep a similarly fast growing plant: egeria densa, I would just compost large portions of the stuff when it got too overgrown.


cool, thanks for the reply, I just posted a new thread with how my tank looks now. trimmed a lot of the Hygros out


----------



## default (May 28, 2011)

It is known to be able to chemically slow down other plants from growing, but I doubt that's noticeable throughout a tank, it's probably more so to limit other plants from growing nearby. This is also not the only hygrophila that is known to do that, I wouldn't worry about it in your tank.

It totally is a weed though, one of those plants that can outgrow plant eaters..


----------



## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

default said:


> It is known to be able to chemically slow down other plants from growing, but I doubt that's noticeable throughout a tank, it's probably more so to limit other plants from growing nearby. This is also not the only hygrophila that is known to do that, I wouldn't worry about it in your tank.
> 
> It totally is a weed though, one of those plants that can outgrow plant eaters..


I think it would also depend on the type of plants... if the other plants competing have small leafs and are slow growers they are definitely going to loose against this one. my sword plant seems to have got into a race with it to see which could grow bigger.

prior to introducing the hygro into my tank, my sword was growing but not at the fast rate I have seen compared to after the hygro got introduced.

http://www.gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=177490


----------



## default (May 28, 2011)

FireWolf said:


> I think it would also depend on the type of plants... if the other plants competing have small leafs and are slow growers they are definitely going to loose against this one. my sword plant seems to have got into a race with it to see which could grow bigger.
> 
> prior to introducing the hygro into my tank, my sword was growing but not at the fast rate I have seen compared to after the hygro got introduced.
> 
> http://www.gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=177490


There are too many factors towards that:

1) the sword may have matured further and rooted better.
2) they are heavy root feeders, perhaps the released chemicals are more targeted towards stemmed plants (based on natural origin region species).
3) the chemical could be triggered by less than ideal conditions of low nutrients.
4) perhaps the sword would grow better now without the hygro.

I agree they could possibly alter growth in some species more, but not thin leaved plants any more than large leaved ones or even slow growing ones. I'm sure almost any slow growing aroid wouldn't even be phased by a neighboring polysperma.
Perhaps you should remove the polysperma and see how the sword does, it would be a good experiment, I've seen one amazon sword completely consume a 20g tank, with leaves taller than the tank and roots that held almost every piece of aquasoil available. There's no doubt when it's Weed vs. Weed, you won't notice anything, now if only one could control the spread of the other .


----------



## FireWolf (Jul 8, 2013)

default said:


> There are too many factors towards that:
> 
> 1) the sword may have matured further and rooted better.
> 2) they are heavy root feeders, perhaps the released chemicals are more targeted towards stemmed plants (based on natural origin region species).
> ...


I believe that is what mine has done to my tank now... it has rooted itself really good and just went into a growth spur.

I use aquarium gravel instead of soil. I have been told previously at Big Als that plants dont usually grow that well in gravel, they do better in sand/substrate.

I have a 75 gallon tank and the leafs of this sword are taller than the tank itself, I can guess the plant itself is about half the width of my tank (about 2 to 3 feet across) and the sword is planted right in the rear middle of the tank. one of the stems which was growing reached from the root all the way across the tank, on top of it and going down outside it and under it

it is taking over the tank but it is also making it look really good.

I have cut the stem as it had its own roots and replanted it on one of the sides of the tank. hopefully I get more swords out of it...

the main sword has already produced about 7 other smaller swords so far. those are split between my 35G and this 75G tanks


----------

