Plant combinations for a Sri lanka/India biotope

SinCrisis

Hey all,

I have been working on a tank using only plants found in the sri lanka and india regions for a puffer tank. However, i have not been able to find a small ground cover plant. Will HC work with the following plants and still look normal?

Crypt parva
Crypt Undulata
Crypt walkeri var lutea
Nymphaea lotus
Aponogeton crispus

most of these plants have broad leaves except for the crypt parva which looks more like grass. All of the plants would be placed in the center of the tank, like a centerpiece and the HC would be grown in the space around it.

I am not one of those biotope only plant guys, but the structure of the HC, being small little leaves vs the larger leaves of the other plants may create a negative contrast?

Can anyone give any plant suggestions that could work in place of HC or give me an opinion on if the hc would fit with the other plants?

redchigh

'normal' is in the eye of the beholder... but if you're looking for a foreground plant native to india, I'd try Monosolenium tenerum, or try to coax Java Moss into a foreground plant.

(Mats aren't extremely hard to make, you just have to plan ahead.. they also do well in dry start)

SinCrisis

oh yea, that reminds me, i plan to be adding java moss on wood and java fern at the base of the wood as well, so thats another broad leaved plants and moss already.

I was thinking pellia, but sweet aquatics did not have any last time i checked and last time i ordered, it was an unsatisfactory experience so im not so sure i want to order from them again.

I want to avoid a java moss mat because this is in a fluval edge and trimming will be a huge pain.

SinCrisis

OK so here i added pictures, maybe someone can tell me how they think it would look with HC? I'm terrible at visualization. Sorry for the blurry pics, its hard to get a good focus with all moisture stuck to the glass.

CIMG2479.jpg
CIMG2480.jpg

The HC would be in all the tan areas, the black area is where the crypts will grow in and the other plants will be added after filling.

redchigh

Well I've never seen HC in person... but If you're afraid of trimming, I would advice against HC.

Maybe drawf hairgrass?

SinCrisis

dwarf hairgrass is higher maintenance than HC. It also grows much taller than HC. to my understanding HC will carpet until it hits a barrier and will stop because their runners naturally run under the substrate and the plants will start to grow upwards but then only haircuts are needed. whereas DHG will start shooting runners backwards and will require lots of careful trimming of runners. Also my rocks are only 2-3cm above the gravel, using DHG will end up covering the rocks. A friend of mine suggested glosso, but says it will have the same growing patterns as DHG and will require tons of maintenance.

redchigh

Well when I had HC it got about an inch tall before my ghost shrimp ate it.

SinCrisis

shrimp eat HC? I plan to establish a small colony of red cherry shrimp and try to get the dwarf puffer to adapt to living with shrimp without eating them, will that affect a HC lawn? I ordered my HC from sweet aquatics a few days ago, I think it would look really nice in the tank. 1in is ok i think, my rocks are around the same height so the red from the jasper will still contrast enough.