anyone mix their floaters???

[GaryE]

@10 Tanks brings up a good question here. When I kayak, and I pass over beds of anacharis and hornwort, they are rooted clumps (hornwort is in great meadows). I find my anacharis here (Elodea sp) roots into very fine sand, though it doesn't in gravel. It has gradually become a rooted plant, like I see in summer lakes. I notice that in my very softwater town, hornwort is uncommon in stores, and I have none. It grew well in my hardwater house, a few houses back.
Not all the plants we leave floating are 'floaters' and it may effect how they interact with other plants. Floating, they're in "I got uprooted" mode.

When I'm kayaking, I see anacharis close to shore in shallows, and hornwort in deeper water of around a metre. So they coexist in nature, in different niches. it gets more interesting when we have true floating plants, from different habitats.

 

[sharkweek178]

You start the hobby, buy a plant, and think all plants are just plants. Now, here we are, looking at peaceful community tanks with just plants, with fish not being involved. We have aggressive plants, passive plants, group plants, above the surface plants, different feeding, different lighting.

I guess you can get bored with this hobby if you just look at. I'm 57 years into keeping tanks, and looking into has kept me very entertained. I can't see that changing. It's a complex world, even in a glass box.

I once read a biologist say that that the competition between plants is much much more vicious than it is between animals.

 

[sharkweek178]

Hello Magnum. I combine Anacharis and Hornwort. Floating them next to each other makes for a nice combination and then the bottom plants get filtered lighting, which most low to medium light bottom plants like.

10

I'm doing that in another tank. I planted some hornwort. But some got loose So I have anacharis and hornwort floating together.

 

[Magnum Man]

This has been interesting... as a "manager" I have a tendency to just put one type per tank... a mix looks "un-managed" albeit more "natural" so, I may look at starting to mix a few...

I do have Java fern babies, that ( unplanned ) do detach & end up mixed in with my floaters... but since they aren't natural floaters, they seem to drift to my filter intakes, where I pluck them out, & typically wrap a little weight wire around the started runner, & plop them into my Silver Dollar tank, where they stay on the bottom...