Man, This Water Sprite's Nearly Giving Me Headaches.

[FishBlast]

How do you plant that stuff? I can't make it sit in the sand, it ends up right at the top of the water. If it does, it just dries out.

It used to be in a basket, but my catfish just had the stupid idea to pull it out of there...

I've asked it in planted section but almost no one's around there.

Some of the branches I've managed to hold down with some rocks, but adding a rock for each of these would really be annoying...

 

[thereverendturtle]

Water sprite is typically a free floater, I've never tried to plant it. Sorry I can't help.

 

[FishBlast]

Water sprite is typically a free floater, I've never tried to plant it. Sorry I can't help.

The seller sold it to me as Ceratopteris, and for some odd reason, it only thrives if it is held deep under water. When it reaches the surface, it starts to either rot or dry out. -.-
I put a bunch of them under some rocks, still have some in the sand (won't be there for long before they take off to the surface again...) and some I've stuck back into the basket.

 

[thereverendturtle]

Is it possible that its Hygrophillia difformis?

 

[soybean]

Weigh down as much of it as you can, it does take root and holds itself in really very quickly so you won't need to have the rocks in for long.

 

[FishBlast]

Is it possible that its Hygrophillia difformis?

No idea. This is what it is.

Pics of it before being torn out by the hoplo:

Now I've put it under 2 rocks, all of it except for the ones that remained in the basket... But they still risk being unrooted by the catfish.

 

[Steve H.]

It's not Difformis. I have HD, and its similar. HD is a little broader leaf, and a little more compact between nodes.

I had similar trouble when I planted, however I planted in gravel. They took about a week before they rooted and stayed down on their own.

You might want to try bunching 2 or 3 stems together, and get them as far down into the substrate as you can.
Maybe that will help?

 

[ZoddyZod]

moved to planted....

 

[FishBlast]

It's not Difformis. I have HD, and its similar. HD is a little broader leaf, and a little more compact between nodes.

I had similar trouble when I planted, however I planted in gravel. They took about a week before they rooted and stayed down on their own.

You might want to try bunching 2 or 3 stems together, and get them as far down into the substrate as you can.
Maybe that will help?

Substrate's only 1.5 cm tall, so not much to root in before being unrooted.

 

[ian]

thats really unhealthy Difformis,a deeper substrate would be needed to stop it from floating away. It also could be done with being taken out of the pots. Have you fed it anything?

 

[FishBlast]

thats really unhealthy Difformis,a deeper substrate would be needed to stop it from floating away. It also could be done with being taken out of the pots. Have you fed it anything?

I looked for Difformis and it doesn't match its leaves much. The seller said it's Ceratopteris but didn't mention its other name. He said I should leave it to float and it will spread, but so far almost all leaves dried once it reached the surface. Only managed to keep a few alive at the surface by putting them with my fry.

When my dad bought it, it was in an even worse state. It got better but then when it got removed from the basket by one of my fish, it "sulked" for 2 days. Now it seems to be sprouting again and isn't as lowered.

I don't want to use chemicals on it, as I wanted a plant that requires no extra care, just feeds off the nitrate in the water and keeps algae away through competition. It's been a month now and no algae so far.

 

[ian]

all plants need feeding...they need more than just nitrate. They will use the traces in the water, but most of the time they are not enough. You may find that you plants won't last to long without any fertilisers.

 

[FishBlast]

all plants need feeding...they need more than just nitrate. They will use the traces in the water, but most of the time they are not enough. You may find that you plants won't last to long without any fertilisers.

At least my lilly pads (or what ever those were that made pink tiny lotus flowers) lasted ages before the winter came and killed them because mom didn't let me put it in the house. Though they got their food from the bunch of leeches that developed in that vase. I had extra worm treats for my fish from that vase and food for that plant.

The plant so far seems to be growing well with the rocks keeping them in the substrate. They just don't like being at water surface.
When dad bought it, it was full of black leaves, I cleaned some but couldn't get the ones near its middle. After my catfish spread it, I cleaned it more, now it has almost all leaves green. Few of them are yellow but I didn't cut them as I am not sure if I should or not. It now has no more black leaves, no idea what the seller did to it that it was in that poor state.