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Water sprite roots?

1381 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  JDM, 
S
I've got a bunch of it floating in my 55 and the roots are growing pretty long hanging down. Do they just keep getting longer or do you trim them? Does trimming encourage them to get longer? Just wondering how to go about it. Just to know that I don't mind them being long because I'm sure the fish love them, just want to know what to expect from this plant. I don't want to damage anything.
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Byron
I leave them. First, I like the effect, and the fish certainly do as this is natural for most fish in their habitats. But second, the plant releases lots of oxygen through the roots, and this is good.

Some fish will get into the root mass and have a field day picking off microscopic food. All anabantids (gourami, betta, etc) do this, many corys, the pencilfish, many tetra, and rasbora and barbs.

Byron.
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Byron said:
I leave them. First, I like the effect, and the fish certainly do as this is natural for most fish in their habitats. But second, the plant releases lots of oxygen through the roots, and this is good.

Some fish will get into the root mass and have a field day picking off microscopic food. All anabantids (gourami, betta, etc) do this, many corys, the pencilfish, many tetra, and rasbora and barbs.

Byron.
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No wonder I see my cories up there more often now. I have 9 albinos and it always seems as if a couple are hanging in the water sprite at all times.
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JDM
Yah, I have started to wonder if my Pepper cory "bottom dwellers" are, in fact, surface fish lately. I have duckweed, pennywort, hygrophila and a few other stem plants floating and the roots are quite prolific. They spend more time up there scouring the roots than in to bottom... at least until I feed them.

Jeff.
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