Hornwort/coontail growth rate...

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As I've mentioned, I have a brown thumb when comes to aquarium plants, to the point where I even kill duckweed. Not only have I not killed my hornwort yet, but it's growing like crazy! These pictures were taken 4 days apart! I've heard this stuff grows fast and will take over a tank in no time, but this is like 1"+ a day! That seems crazy fast!

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Well that is reassuring. It isn't my favorite aesthetically, but I want a jungle tank with live plants.

And I think I need a clay pot or two on the right side. No one locally has any right now except thrift store who thinks a used 4" pot is worth $4/ea. :lol:
That is absolutely ridiculous! I can't believe someone would charge that much for a USED one, you can get them for a $1 each at some of the hardware stores out here, although the aquarium store sells them at $5 each. I hope your local (and more reasonably priced) store has them back in stock soon.
 
I did once have a female guppy get a needle of it stuck through one of her fins, goodness knows how. I had to put her in a super shallow cup and use tweezers to pull it out. None of my other fish have had a problem with it, and my betta like resting on top of the tangle left floating at the top of the tank.
 
That is absolutely ridiculous! I can't believe someone would charge that much for a USED one, you can get them for a $1 each at some of the hardware stores out here, although the aquarium store sells them at $5 each. I hope your local (and more reasonably priced) store has them back in stock soon.

Walmart is the only place locally who sells them, but they're out. They are $0.88/4". I'm hoping they'll get more in soon.
 
@Circus Ouch! I've worried about that very thing, actually. Our betta seems to like it better than the artificial plants that were in there before. I worried about those plants far more, honestly.

I put the floating hornwort from the guppy tank into the cichlid tank. So far, as long as it's floating, they leave it alone. I'm surprised that the fry haven't checked it out, though.
 
@Circus Ouch! I've worried about that very thing, actually. Our betta seems to like it better than the artificial plants that were in there before. I worried about those plants far more, honestly.

I put the floating hornwort from the guppy tank into the cichlid tank. So far, as long as it's floating, they leave it alone. I'm surprised that the fry haven't checked it out, though.
That was the only time I had anything bad happen with my hornwort, and my betta don't has as much as a frayed fin from it. Seems to have been a one off. All of my fish like the live plants a lot more then the fake ones. My dragonscale plakat male doesn't use his leaf hammock anymore, just the tangle of hornwort. It lets him float just under the surface at night. My halfmoon male sleeps in his coconut hut, since the hornwort won't hold his finnage.
 
As I've mentioned, I have a brown thumb when comes to aquarium plants, to the point where I even kill duckweed. Not only have I not killed my hornwort yet, but it's growing like crazy! These pictures were taken 4 days apart! I've heard this stuff grows fast and will take over a tank in no time, but this is like 1"+ a day! That seems crazy fast!

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Amazing!
Did you use any fertilizer?
How many hours you turned on the light each day?

I like to create something similar since I have shrimps in my tank.
 
Nicely done! :D
Your thumb isn't looking that brown anymore... maybe more like an olive colour?
Maybe try something like water wisteria on the the right side? Would help to hide the filter and heater, and the wisteria and hornwort can meet in the middle and duke it out for dominance!
 
Amazing!
Did you use any fertilizer?
How many hours you turned on the light each day?

I like to create something similar since I have shrimps in my tank.

Actually, the tank itself has only been going about a week or so. I used an established filter and media. Ran it for couple days and it was converting 4ppm ammonia every 24 hours and everything checks out. I have not fertilized anything yet. Lights are on roughly 12-14 hours a day.
 
@Circus Ouch! I've worried about that very thing, actually. Our betta seems to like it better than the artificial plants that were in there before. I worried about those plants far more, honestly.

I put the floating hornwort from the guppy tank into the cichlid tank. So far, as long as it's floating, they leave it alone. I'm surprised that the fry haven't checked it out, though.
Here is a picture of tetra fry hiding in the hornwort I took about 6 months ago, if you look closley you will see their heads poking up through the hornwort waiting for me to feed them.
 

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Hornwort was one of the plants I managed to grow when I first had live plants. As I became more successful at not killing plants, I found the hornwort was strangling the other plants so reluctantly it had to go.
One word of caution about hornwort - it can decide to drop all its leaves if you do something it doesn't like. Years ago I bought a rather nice rock from a fish store and put it in a tank with hornwort. I got up next morning to find a very cloudy tank with bare hornwort stems and the bottom of the tank covered in leaves. It was the rock's fault - I put it in a bucket of water and next day I couldn't see the rock for the cloudy water. The rock looked nice with air plants attached to it.
 
Hornwort was one of the plants I managed to grow when I first had live plants. As I became more successful at not killing plants, I found the hornwort was strangling the other plants so reluctantly it had to go.
One word of caution about hornwort - it can decide to drop all its leaves if you do something it doesn't like. Years ago I bought a rather nice rock from a fish store and put it in a tank with hornwort. I got up next morning to find a very cloudy tank with bare hornwort stems and the bottom of the tank covered in leaves. It was the rock's fault - I put it in a bucket of water and next day I couldn't see the rock for the cloudy water. The rock looked nice with air plants attached to it.
I know what you mean I had my hornwort disintegrate in just a week or so when I had it as a floating plant to hide my tetra fry. This time I only bought it because I needed something to deal with any possible ammonia with the change over from gravel to sand in my 55 gallon tank. The LFS had very few plants to choose from. I hope some tetra fry will show up and hide in it.
:fish:
 

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