Tai Yang Cao (Sun Grass) Anyone?

[soltari007]

As the thread name suggests, I need to ask if anyone has experience with this plant. Can't find it in tropica and I don't know the scientific name for it. Can anyone help me?

Sam

[confusekid]

Family is Tonina. Do a search and you have tons of info.

Jack

[michael lai]

Hi Soltari007,
I think the scientic name is Totina Belem, From South America.

[tango]

As the thread name suggests, I need to ask if anyone has experience with this plant. Can't find it in tropica and I don't know the scientific name for it. Can anyone help me?

Sam

Try it once long ago, but find very exhaustive to maintain it; Initially it grow very nice umbrella shape at the top, but as the top umbrella become bigger, the lower portion of the leaves start to rot away, due to blockage of light.

and the problem starts to progragate upwards till the whole stem is botak; Seem that the only way to solve is replant the stem regualrly by cutting away the lower botak portion, before the botak sypthom spread.

tango

[hii]

mine Tonina Belem worst...leaves at the bottom start melt, not only that ... top portion got a lot of leaves melt too .... need someone experience to share his comments.

The plants need high light??

[soltari007]

Hi all,

Thank you for your kind advice. I have planted the Tai Yang Cao in my tank for about a week now. I bought one pot two weeks earlier, but because I didn't know how to take care of it, as you guys mentioned the stems rotted away in my secondary tank. I salvaged the rest and put them into my main tank (they look really nice even when short.) Then I bought another pot and planted it. All the plants are looking great now and I can see roots forming. Luckily for me the stems have stopped rotting and all the leaves look healthy.

I spoke to a LFS owner in Little India, and he told me that Tonina sp. needs cold, soft water with really good lighting. I think that would be the trick to get them to flourish. Comments anyone?

Sam

P.S. Under the same conditions, my Myriophyllum tuberculatum (looks like cabomba but red with bronze leaves) are growing too big for my 2 feet!! Should I cut the stem and replant, or leave them as they are and hope that they stop growing?

[augi_ow]

my tonina doing quite well under 25 degrees 150W mh lighting and ADA soil which is quite low in PH..
lots of people say ADA soil good for tonina so i guess it the soil....

[mitsukake]

yes, and both differnt type of soil will make the Hong tai yang grow different..
my friend juz have a experience with both soils

[Garen_koh]

actually for toninas if u grow them using aquasoil u will get good results, due to to ph and water hardness it will buffer to very low.. for toninas they will grow well under the ph of 5.5 to 6.0 and a very soft water 0 to 1 and try to give them high lighting.. u can try it^^ the results u get will be much better under all this conditions.

[soltari007]

Hi Garen,

Thanks for the advice. For me however, I've been using normal sand to grow them. Guess I'm lucky that the conditions are just right, because the tonina I have are growing lateral shoots all over the place. I recommend this plant as a great decoration because it gives a pacific, "coconut tree" kind of feel.

The fish shop near Beauty World SC has lots of this plant, and their specimens grow very long!!! If you're interested in this plant, there is a good place to start looking.