Ground cover aquarium plants: types, description, content

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The main decoration of the aquarium are not fish at all, as many believe. Ground cover aquarium plants create a natural feel by acting as a natural decorative element along with synthetic rocks, divers and castles. Plants are planted in an aquarium substrate. Ground covers do not grow above 10 cm, forming a single composition. The use of low-growing plants allows you to visually expand the viewing space of the aquarium, and the fish do not hide in the thickets at the front wall.

Glossostigma

One of the recently bred exotic aquarium plants - glossostigma, which came from New Zealand. Glossostigma Elatinoides is short, 2-3 cm high, with long shoots. Leaves of glossostigma are 3-5 mm wide, oblong, ovoid, 8-10 mm long. In good conditions, it spreads over the ground, forming a continuous cover, but with a lack of light, the stems raise the leaves to a height of 5-10 cm. The plant is photophilous,demanding. Water temperature for normal growth is 22-26 degrees with a pH of 5-6.

Glossostigma povoynichkova sits in the aquarium so that taller specimens do not reduce the amount of light falling on the herbaceous cover of T5 HO or MH HQI metal halide lamps. Aquarium fish are selected based on the need for Glossostigma Elatinoides in an abundance of carbon dioxide, and the plant itself requires constant feeding with liquid phosphates and nitrates. However, it can be grown with other ground cover aquarium species that differ in lighting requirements and water quality, but in this case the shoots will stretch upwards and the grass carpet will become patchy.

The plant is planted in sandy soil at a distance of 1-2 cm from the stems. Then it propagates by lateral shoots, which are cut as necessary - this prevents growth. Periodically, the carpet is trimmed to enrich the lower part of the stems with light. Otherwise, the stems die from lack of lighting, and the carpet of plants floats to the surface.

Lileopsis

Lileopsis is one of the ground cover aquarium plants that can live outside of water in constantly moistened soil. Lilaeopsis carolinensis spreads in a continuous carpet without gaps, occupying the entire area of the soil. The plant is light-loving, grows slowly, is picky about water hardness, and is easy to maintain. In open field paludariums, the growth rate increases. The recommended growth temperature is from +22 °С to +26 °С. to plantlileopsis need to be 2-3 cm apart so that the leaves are not covered with algae due to the density of the carpet.

Javan moss

Javanese moss in the aquarium grows horizontally and vertically, covering the driftwood and the walls of the aquarium. Vesicularia dubyana looks like a continuous interweaving of stems strewn with leaves no larger than 3 mm in size. Javanese moss does not have a root system, it is attached to the ground with the help of thin microscopic threads - rhizoids.

Keeping Java moss in an aquarium starts with the right choice of lighting. Shading will provoke the plant to reach for the light, covering the vertical walls of the aquarium and driftwood. No soil is needed to grow Vesicularia dubyana, so the moss is planted on decorative elements, and the remaining space at the bottom of the aquarium is made out by other ground cover plants.

The only problem you have to face is removing the thread algae from the moss stems. The threads are collected with a regular toothbrush by winding, and brushing should be done regularly to avoid the appearance of plaque that is detrimental to moss.

Sitnyag

Tiny and needle-shaped smut is a ground cover aquarium plant without leaves and looks like a bunch of thin stems extending from filamentous rhizomes. Eleocharis acicularis is capable of flowering, forming thin spikelets at the tops of the stems. The height of the beams varies from 6 to 15 cm, depending on the species. Both types are grown in aquariums with water temperaturefrom +15 °С to +25 °С.

Sitnyag - photophilous plant, suitable for shallow aquariums. The greater the planting depth, the more lighting will be required.

Echinodorus tender

Echinodorus tenellus is the shortest (up to 5-6 cm tall) of all Echinodorus species, the most common plant for growing in small aquariums. This is a standing peduncle of bright green color, 3-20 cm long. In bright light, the color of the plant changes to ruby red, the bushes become dense and undersized.

Comfortable water temperature for Echinodorus tender from +18 °С to +30 °С, the water should change regularly and be hard enough. Growing in deep aquariums with a lack of lighting leads to an increase in plant height and yellowing of the leaves. Planted in coarse sand.

General care instructions

Regardless of the type and name of the aquarium plant, there are general recommendations for keeping and caring for them. Since ground cover plants are demanding on the quality of lighting due to their short stature, it is not necessary to plant tall specimens in the front of the aquarium, it is better to transfer them to the background. The brightness of lighting for each individual species is averaged, but the spectrum of the selected color depends on the requirements of the plant. For example, echinodorus tender grows well under fluorescent lighting, glossostigama under the light of metal halide lamps, and Java moss grows even in the shade. Light source power is 0,7-1, 5 watts/liter, and the lighting duration should not exceed 10 hours per day.

The listed species require an average water temperature ranging from +20 °С to +26 °С, so plants can be combined in one aquarium, forming lawns of different density.

Ground cover aquarium plants are stenion species and need a certain level of carbon dioxide, so they require a diffusion device to enrich the water with carbon monoxide.

The main type of soil for foreground ground cover plants is lightly enriched sand of various grain sizes, requiring periodic top dressing with liquid phosphate fertilizers containing trace elements of iron and magnesium. The thickness of the soil for planting in the area of the front wall of the aquarium is small - 1-3 cm, these plants do not have a powerful root system, and Javanese moss does not have rhizomes at all and is able to grow on glass and plastic, snags.