gou xin cao (Utricularia bifida ?)

[illumbomb]

Hi All,

I am thinking of setting up a low maintenance cherry shrimp tank for my friend's house warming. I have in mind a similar set up as my current 25cm tank (GEX substrate, 20W clip-on PL light, no CO2, no fertilisation, no filtration). The tank hopefully can last at least 1 year in good condition with just 30% water change done weekly.

APP grew well in my current tank but needs at least 1 major trimming per month. I recently saw in NA a plant which the Uncle told me was "Gou1 Xin1 Cao3". I searched through the website and saw a posting naming it as "Utricularia bifida". It looks like a plant which will just spread sideways and cover the tank but will not grow densely upwards.

1. Can someone who tried growing this plant in a tank of similar condition (strong light, no CO2, no fertilisation) before share some experience with me?
2. Can someone who grew this plant well before kindly advise on the optimal condition for growing this plant?
3. Feel free to recommend any other plant which you think would suit my plan.

Regards,
T S Wang

[Simon]

Utricularia bifida is native to Singapore, also known as Common Yellow Bladderwort, don't think it is wise to add bladderwort if the shrimps would to breed in the tank

[illumbomb]

Noted, Just thought that the plant I saw in NA looked like something that was easy to maintain so suited my plan, I could also turn it into a boraras nano tank if shrimps are found to be really unsuitable. More importantly I wanted a lawn effect with easily maintained short green plant that will not grow thick in the kind of nano tank I am creating (no fertiliser, no CO2, no filtration, strong lights).

However, back to this gou xin cao, I passed by Polyart today and thought that I saw some pots of similar plant, I asked the attendant for the identity of the plant and he told me it is gou xin cao, aka chendol, aka utricularia.

I have done a search through the website before and found many posting equating chendol plant to utricularia graminifolia. I have seen chendol plant in colourful LFS before and it was growing in thick clumps which was exactly what I didn't want.

Gou xin cao is not chendol right just like utricularia bifida is not utricularia graminifolia?