Hair Grass

[jansonx]

Hi, I bought some hair grass a week ago. Every morning, some of the grasses tend to float to the surface of the water. Does anyone face such a problem before? Thanks

[benny]

What fishes do you have in your tank? More specifically, do you have any bottom feeders?

Cheers,

[Justikanz]

I have this problem... Now I have hairgrass ALL over the tank... And I am like culturing floating hairgrass! *Grumbles*... I plonk them back, they float back up after a day or two...

I have darios, SAEs and Yamato shrimps prowling the tank floor and that's most probably the reason for my hairgrass constantly floating up... But once they root, it should not be a problem...

[jansonx]

I have 4 SAEs, 3 Yamato shrimps, 3 lemon algae eaters, some cherry and malayan shrimps and tetras. Every morning have to spend at least half an hour putting the grasses in place.

[Justikanz]

Haha... Good luck man! Like mine, those fellas will constantly be pulling your hairgrass out... Try putting larger pieces of gravel, granite bits, wood etc around the plants to allow them to root in more peacefully.

[jansonx]

oh... that's bad....

[Justikanz]

No worries... That's just part of fishkeeping and learning...

Try the gravel/pebbles/small wood etc as suggested to fence the hairgrass. Or alternatively, plant it together with tenellus... Messy look, though...

[primavera]

Yeah, mine does the same. I guess just have to house the fishies somewhere else until all the hair grass have rooted well. Worked for me, but then again I have a few fishtanks to spare. Maybe a bucket would do?

[bulovalover]

Same problem initially - hair grass keeps floating up. I had a couple of SAEs. However, as the hair grass starting propergating, the problem stops. I guess the hair grass managed to sink their roots into the gravel.

[bossteck]

Hi,

Not sure if this works, but you may want to trim the plants before planting them. Less 'leaf' means less air, and hence the plants will be less likely to float up.

[Digimon]

For me, I trimmed off about 1 cm of the hair grass before planting. Then I plant them deep into the gravel, leaving about 1 cm protruding from the gravel. It will grow upwards after a few days. I think the trimming also initiate new growth. No problem with floating hair grass.

Initially, only a few stalks floating on the next day after planting. After that, 1 stalk once a while in a few days time. I just throw them away cos those rooted had already started to propogate. I have 3 dwarf cories, 1 SAE and 5 yamatos in the tank. Gravel is lapis sand.

The previous time I do for another tank, I trim after the planting. But a bit messy. Need to use a nylon net to scoop up all the floating remains. This round I trim in a container of water before planting. Less messy.

[diki]

For me, I trimmed off about 1 cm of the hair grass before planting. Then I plant them deep into the gravel, leaving about 1 cm protruding from the gravel. It will grow upwards after a few days. I think the trimming also initiate new growth. No problem with floating hair grass.

Initially, only a few stalks floating on the next day after planting. After that, 1 stalk once a while in a few days time. I just throw them away cos those rooted had already started to propogate. I have 3 dwarf cories, 1 SAE and 5 yamatos in the tank. Gravel is lapis sand.

The previous time I do for another tank, I trim after the planting. But a bit messy. Need to use a nylon net to scoop up all the floating remains. This round I trim in a container of water before planting. Less messy.

That is a good idea. Should have looked into this thread before rescaping my tank. Luckily my tank's bottom dewellers are the 4 kulli loaches. Really wanted to buy clown loach (help to eat snails) and also the corys. They are so cute to see swimming around in a small group. But really scared they pull out all my hair grass and a unknown foreground plant (something like Bacopa australis but cannot confirm). Need to wait until I can my DC from my bro-in-law to take a pic of it. Got it from Fu Wu yesterday. Maybe I can start to get them once the plants settled down.

[Justikanz]

It is definitely a good idea to plant before getting bottom feeding/roaming fish like corydoras and loaches... But they should be ok once the plants root. I will definitely plant first before I introduce bottom dwelling fish the next time I start a new tank...

[StanChung]

e tennelus and hg is bad idea thomas. if you decide to remove the e tennelus everything rips out.

as always, even with glosso or hc. let the plant root first before you let the the nosy fellas in.

the trim the hg tip to one cm from ground is very good tip.

[Justikanz]

Heh heh... You have to make sure you dun suddenly want to remove the tenellus lah... Btw, Amano actually like to mix hairgrass and tenellus in his scape... I wanna try it for my next scape, after CNY.

[hjbyeo]

What's the proportion that he mixes? 50% 50%? His super swee ler!

Sometimes, he also include glosso to the mix!

Do you also happen to notice that the hairgrass appears more wavy? instead of ram rod straight?

[|squee|]

He is using some different species of hairgrass. Check out this post.

[hjbyeo]

No wonder, they look so different from the ones we have in our tanks!

Which LFS can we go to get hold these species?

I thought it's better to first go LFS (support the good ones out there, you know) and unless they don't have, I'll get hold of it from bros in AQ or Arofanatics. Provided they share (or sell) their price possessions.

[StanChung]

Heh heh... You have to make sure you dun suddenly want to remove the tenellus lah... Btw, Amano actually like to mix hairgrass and tenellus in his scape... I wanna try it for my next scape, after CNY.

hi thomas,
read an old aquajournal that amano does plant a stalk or two hg in between riccia rocks to keep the riccia down longer.

i didn't know hg needed to be anchored by e t. unfortunately i can't read japanese. maybe when amano get's invited to sg. i will ask him.

btw the two common hg we see in lfs are eleocharis acicularis and eleocharis parvula. acicularis seems to be the straighter and more common one. check out tropica website.

there's quite a few out there not named in own backyard.

[Justikanz]

Kinda difficult to get Eleocharis parvula in Singapore, I think... The commonly found hairgrass here are Eleocharis acicularis and Eleocharis vivipara.

Amano cannot speak nor understand English leh, he needs a translator...