If you want to add something a little bit different to your freshwater setup, the Pea Puffer is cute, curious, and chock-full of personality and sass. These fish are a little more demanding than some of the more commonly seen aquarium favorites when it comes to care, but they are happy in a planted tank and make a nice addition to a community.
Depends on the individual but generally peaceful. These little fish are one of the more peaceable barbs, and they make a bright, lively addition to a community tank. The Cherry barb is a shoaling fish that is hardy and easy to keep, and does very well in planted tanks. Harlequins spend much of their time swimming in a shoal in the midwater area, so a tank with carpet planting is perfect for their needs. Bottom-dwellers, such as Corydoras catfish, loaches, and small catfish species, all enjoy the hiding places that hairgrass provides and will spend much of their time foraging among the plant bases for dropped food that drifts down from above.
However, all these fish do need some clear areas in which they can swim and dig if they want to. So, if you have an extremely dense carpet of hairgrass that completely covers the floor of your tank, bottom-dwellers might not be the best choice for your setup.
There are a few fish species that are best avoided if you have hairgrass in your aquarium. Some fish, such as Oscars and certain cichlid varieties, including the Electric Blue Acara , like to burrow and dig, and they will certainly damage the delicate root systems of the plant. Unfortunately, many of the snail species that are so popular with aquarists tend to eat or wantonly damage plants, including hairgrass, leading to bare patches in your carefully cultivated verdant lawn.
However, if you desperately want to keep snails in your community setup, I would suggest that you choose Assassin snails, as they are one species of mollusk that will most likely leave your plants alone.
In fact, shrimp will spend much of their time foraging among the hairgrass for scraps of food and debris that they can eat, and they will appreciate the shelter that the lawn provides. If you can recreate that habitat in your home aquarium, your plants should grow well and thrive.
However, a carpet of hairgrass works best in tanks of ten gallons or more. Dwarf hairgrass needs a layer of substrate in which to grow, ideally around one to two inches deep. Also, to propagate and spread, the plant sends out runners, which find pushing through soft sand much easier than battling against gravel.
The water pH needs to be in the neutral range of between 6. Water hardness should be moderately soft at around 2 to 10 dGH. So, in an aquarium setting, the plants do need a fairly good amount of light. Although most standard aquarium lighting is adequate for Dwarf hairgrass, do make sure that the light is not filtered or dimmed by floating plants or decorations. To encourage the growth of a lush carpet of plants, you should include a layer of aquatic plant soil underneath the substrate.
The plant also does very well if fed with CO2, although it does prefer root tabs rather than liquid. A major factor in successfully growing Dwarf hairgrass is that you take care to plant it correctly. Start by deciding where you want the plants to be. If you want to create a carpet effect, leave one to two inches of space between each plant so that they have enough room to grow. When arranging the plants, create a box pattern with one specimen at each corner of the box and one in the center.
The plants will send out runners across and through the substrate to quickly fill in any gaps. Place individual sections of hairgrass into the substrate to a depth of about an inch, using a pair of aquascaping tweezers. If you want to, trim the plants at the front of the carpet, leaving the ones at the back longer to create a tiered, 3-D effect. Trimming the hairgrass also encourages the plants to spread horizontally. Once the plants are established, and the carpet is thick, you may want to remove a few plants periodically to thin them out.
That helps to keep the plants healthy, ensures good water circulation, and guarantees that adequate nutrition is available for all the specimens. You seem to have taken care of everything else like light etc. Just mind that Seachem Flourish supplies mainly micronutrients. Thank you for this guide. After reading this last night I pulled out all my DHG, trimmed, split, and replanted it.
Looking forward to seeing some faster growth! Thanks for the help! Glad to see it worked, even if a little bit. Out of curiosity — what lighting are you using and how deep is your tank without the substrate? Question about when to trim, just planted probably in thicker bunches than your recommendation, but the current plant length is above 2 inches possibly 3 on some. I am looking for both a lower carpet in open areas and higher grasses along my driftwood, what do you say, should I trim right away to ensure the heavier carpet in some areas?
Is there any acclimatization period I should be aware of? You will see yellowing in less than a week if the grass was grown emersed which is usually the case.
Keep trimming it back to 1. Yeah that is great advice! I am not sure if they were grown emersed or not.. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Introduction and Overview of Dwarf Hairgrass Eleocharis parvula There are 3 plant species of underwater-tolerant dwarf hairgrass, that are available in the aquarium trade.
In general, aquatic carpeting grasses are known to be picky growers and require intensive care. The dwarf hairgrass, however, is more beginner-friendly in that regard.
However, I can guarantee you that the results will be worth it. Trim the roots. Trimming the roots will guide the energy of the plant to recover the roots faster. As this type of hairgrass spreads through runners, this is beneficial to a faster spread of the carpet.
Grab the hairgrass by the roots with a pair of plant tweezers. Using planting tweezers is somewhat mandatory for planting virtually any type of hairgrass in an aquarium. Make sure yours are made from stainless steel. One inch is enough space to stimulate the runners to grow without overcrowding the patches. Push the patches gently into the substrate. Hold the tweezers at a degree angle and apply a slight push to the substrate. Shaking is recommended so the substrate can fit itself around the roots of the grass.
This way you can safely pull out the tweezers without uprooting the fragile blades of grass. What to expect after the initial planting? This is because, often, merchants grow the grass emerged: These yellowing blades are not used to the underwater conditions and the more fragile ones will fade in the beginning.
What you want to do at this stage is trim. Not bad, right? I hope this helps and also thank you for being a reader. Hi, would ADA aquasoil capped with sand work well for substrate? Good luck! Hi Cristian, thanks for sharing your experience! Mine shows just the opposite though. A coarse sandy substrate is probably the best choice for growing dwarf hairgrass, as it allows the plant to root easily without suffocating it. Use your aquarium tweezers to plant separate strands of grass.
More about this process is described in the section on growing a dwarf hairgrass carpet below! Keep in mind that like any carpeting plant, dwarf hairgrass needs to be trimmed regularly in most cases. While it is possible to grow this grass in gravel, it is not advised. These plants use shallow runners to propagate, and gravel does not make this process any easier. Fine substrates, like sand, will allow your grass to spread more easily and more quickly.
Because this plant grows like grass on the bottom of your tank, it provides additional hiding spots for fish in the foreground of your tank, as opposed to other plants that keep your fish pushed in the background. Within a few days, it is possible that your grass could be completely eaten!
On the other hand, shrimp love it and many aquarium keepers specifically plant this grass for their shrimp to breed and spawn in. It is important to consider what other types of plants you plan on putting in your aquarium before getting this grass. While it looks beautiful taking over the bottom of your tank, it is also taking a lot of nutrients out of the water to grow and sustain itself.
This can cause other plants in your tank to not get as many nutrients as they need to properly grow as well. Even more so, the grass could potentially begin to grow on top of the other plants, further restricting their uptake. While this problem is easily treatable by simply pruning and trimming away any unwanted grass or supplementing additional nutrients, it is extra maintenance to consider.
If you want to grow a dwarf hairgrass carpet in your aquarium, make sure all the requirements for lush growth have been met.
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