A Good Brack Plant Site

[jonny5]

so not that usefull but considering there is a lack of variety of brackish plants i thought id post this site i found for buying plants online.
Not all plants are submersible and some are in fact terrestrial but alot are aquatic or ripirian.

plants from florida

http/seedclean.com/htdocs/salt.html

 

[nmonks]

It's a very interesting site, so thanks for sharing.

The problem of course isn't the lack of brackish (or even fully marine) plants, but the fact relatively few of them are suited to aquarium life. If you get a chance to read 'Dynamic Aquaria' you'll see lots of microcosms and mesocosms built around brackish water conditions, filled with things like herbs, sedges, reeds and even small trees. But almost all of these need intense lighting and deep substrates.

Many of the aquarium plants we value come from shallow streams where they live in partial shade underneath the rainforest canopy. For the most part, brackish water habitats are either mangroves or open marshes, and the diversity of small, slow-growing, low-light plants just isn't that high.

Still, people have kept mangroves, and if those can be grown, then I dare say some of these other brackish water plants are worth trying.

Cheers, Neale

 

[jonny5]

ah i gotcha, ya i saw that site though and seeing as lower florida is subtropical some of those plants might work, even though only a few are fully aquatic. It nice to options, but speaking of mangrooves neal; i might want to try some later on but i fear the tree will break the tank. I know they are slow growing but dont you eventually have to kill the plant otherwise it will expand and cause your tank to pop.

 

[nmonks]

Yes, mangroves present problems in terms of housing. They do grow slowly, very slowly usually, and are basically trees, so while you can "bonzai" them to some degree, eventually they get too big for most home aquaria. There isn't a huge amount written about them, but here's something by noted marine aquarist Antony Calfo:

http/www.wetwebmedia.com/mangrovetrees.htm

On the whole I'd class them as temporary additions to a reef tank or brackish water system. There are much better alternatives for long-term use. For mid to high salinities fake plants make sense, and at low salinities the list of salt-tolerant species is actually much longer than you'd expect.

http/homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/FAQ/2d.html

Cheers, Neale