Ceratophyllum

[maurizio]

Hello all,
anybody with some experience in keeping Ceratophyllum?

I understand that, if planted in the substrate, the buried parts will eventually rot and give way, letting the plant do what it's best at, that is, float. So I'm considering to mount it onto a stone. But how?? (I would avoid wood, since it doesn't fit the environment I want to create). Can anybody confirm that BOTH sides of each stem grow? If this is true, I could perhaps fix each stem at its centre with a nylon line, leaving the two extremes to float freely. Does it make sense? Other suggestions?

 

[tanksalot]

I grow it, but I don't do anything particularly interesting with it. I just bunch 3 or so stems together with a strip of plant weight low down and bung 'em in the tank at the back so that the base of the bunch is hidden behind other things. I do find I have to drag them out every couple of weeks or so because the base of the stems will start to disintegrate, but it's no big deal: it grows very fast so I just nip a few inches off the base, re-tie and put them back.

If you want to mount it though, I'm not sure that tying it in the middle would work too well. It does grow at both ends, but the stem is rather brittle and I suspect that tying it down in one place would either break the stem outright, or damage it leading to it rotting and then breaking. Have to say I'm tempted to try it myself to see what happens, though!

I did see a post somewhere that said you could take a single long piece of it and tie it down at various places along its length to a piece of wood or stone so that it is lying horizontally and then the side shoots would grow upwards to make a green curtain, but as I haven't tried it I don't know how susceptible it would be to rotting and breakage. Might be worth a go, though?

That's about as helpful as I can be - hopefully someone else will chime in.

 

[maurizio]

Thanks-a-lot, tanksalot!
It's a good bunch of ideas, and I'm glad to see that the two-way growth is confirmed. This adds potential.

It will be the only plant in my low-end (SG 1.002) brackish tank, just to give some hiding place to a school of glassfish. Perhaps fixing it not too tightly, or doing it in two points of each stem, with two parallel lines of nylon, would help. I would then cover up with some Java moss.

The curtain idea is certainly very worth trying. That's exactly the kind of thing I would like to have.