PSA: Trim your Bacopa! (And plants in general)

[Tyler_Fishman]

this is what happens when bacopa is not trimmed. It grows up out and onto the side of your tank, wipe this does look rather cool, I can only imagine the nightmare aquascapers must go through with Bacopa, especially because the very apex of the plant is what’s pushing out new growth you can’t just trim the top, though it does produce side plants at the base of every petiole, so this plant is infinitely cloning, another fun fact about this plant here is that genetically it’s all the same plant. I got from a 3 inch emersed cutting at a garden center I planted the side plants that come out of the base of every leaf, now I have easily 60 individual plants from one 3 inch cutting! It really is a great plant and I don’t mind the fact that it’s growing out of my tank, I hope my ludwigia will do the same too.

 

[Colin_T]

Bacopa and Ludwigia are both marsh plants and will grow the same. Wet feet with leaves above water and they will even flower.

 

[thrujenseyes]

wow, that's crazy! hope you don't have shrimp, that would be the ladder of escape! haha

 

[SnailPocalypse]

I dislike bacopa so instead of keep it I grow it and sell it

 

[Ch4rlie]

That’s nice growth on bacopa plant.

I only had limited success with bacopa, it did grow but very slowly whilst other crypts and vals grew nicely and quickly.

Theory is my water being hard, some plants thrive whilst others like bacopa, ludgwigia and rotalas had very limited success in the hard water which leads me to believe that they MAY prefer softer water.

Well, that’s what I say anyway

 

[Colin_T]

I only had limited success with bacopa, it did grow but very slowly whilst other crypts and vals grew nicely and quickly.

Bacopa is a marsh plant and does not do well when completely submerged. If you put some in a pot and put the pot in a tray with an inch of water, you will have a lot more success with it.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Semi aquatic or marsh type plant. That’s kinda interesting.

Though tbh I did not actually do any research on this plant so I just planted it and see if it would grow, it didn’t really so I put that plant in my mind not to buy any more!

Though has to be said those LFS will sell pretty much any plant and claim it will grow submerged and a good aquarium plant etc etc. I remember that from my early year of fishkeeping and foolishly I believed them at the time so I thought it was my fault the plant did not grow at the time

Lessons have been learned via bad advice from LFS really.

 

[Colin_T]

Though has to be said those LFS will sell pretty much any plant and claim it will grow submerged and a good aquarium plant etc etc. I remember that from my early year of fishkeeping and foolishly I believed them at the time so I thought it was my fault the plant did not grow at the time

I had the same issue when I started fish keeping. Buy the nice purple, red or blue plant, put it in the tank and a week later it was mush. Go back and buy more, same deal, eventually no more

When I started working in the pet industry we carried heaps of "aquarium plants" and most of them were garden plants that didn't last more than a week in water. I was fortunate because another guy that started working there around the same time had the same queries I had about aquatic plants and also washing the tanks out each week before fish came in. Between us we managed to get the boss to drop most of the marsh plants and only carry true aquatics. Eventually we set up a small pond and put the marsh plants in that and had true aquatics in the tanks. It made a huge difference to the customers who were getting upset at losing plants all the time.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

That’s nice growth on bacopa plant.

I only had limited success with bacopa, it did grow but very slowly whilst other crypts and vals grew nicely and quickly.

Theory is my water being hard, some plants thrive whilst others like bacopa, ludgwigia and rotalas had very limited success in the hard water which leads me to believe that they MAY prefer softer water.

Well, that’s what I say anyway

From what I have seen shaded bacopa under low light will take about a month just to grow about 9 inches in length, exposed to high light submerged it can grow to that length in half the time, and emersed under high light it can double its size in a week, it’s ideal if you want to donate a portion of your tank to a bacopa forest, I like the creeping effect it gives when emersed, I believe it’s called creeping Jenny to most conventional gardeners, I can see why.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

wow, that's crazy! hope you don't have shrimp, that would be the ladder of escape! haha

I do but they don’t seem too tempted to climb out

 

[thrujenseyes]

I do but they don’t seem too tempted to climb out

Oh good, well you must be keeping them happy inside!