Who has used pennywort??

[Crystalann0219]

I have a friend with a supply of pemnywort in a fishless, fertilizer free setting. Its outdoor and will be dying off soon. She said I can have as much as id like. Im curious as to who has used it in their newt tanks. Ive read up on it and it seems like a good choice. Most of the aqautoc plants i have got from local greenhouses do not do well in my tanks, dying after a few weeks, despite the person who sold them to me telling me they would do well in an aquarium. Im also going out of town this weekend and will be able to visit a store with a real selection. Please tell me your favorite aqautoc plants that do well with cool temps and low lighting.

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[Chinadog]

Pennywort is apparently quite easy to grow, but I've never had much luck with it, some people end up composting it, but it always seems to melt away in my tanks. Maybe it's the LED lighting?
For
I do quite well with the usual stuff people grow in newt tanks like Java moss, Java fern, Anacharis, Bacopa, Rotala and Vallisnaria. If you have a deep tank Giant Vallis is very impressive and very fast growing, so it's good using up nitrates and preventing algae blooms.
I used to do very well with Water hyacinths and Water lettuce, but since I converted to LED lighting they just wont grow. Most of my other fully submerged plants do very well with the LEDs, but stuff that grows above the surface just goes leggy and dies off. Well, apart from duckweed that is, once you have that stuff, you have it for life!

 

[Jort]

I've used it a lot and I think it looks a bit nicer than Eleodea, but my water stays in a better condition while using Eleodea in my experience.

 

[JoshBA]

Above water, this stuff grows like crazy. I planted it in my dart frog vivarium, which is lighted with very strong LEDs, and it outcompeted every other plant. Every other week I have to hack out tons of this stuff, just to be able to have clear areas for my frogs.

In my newt tanks, it seems to grow best semi-aquatically, but doesn't do as well completely submerged. In most of my semi-aquatic setups I try to avoid it as it takes over any terrestrial area very quickly.

For other plants that I have had success with, my favorites are Ludwigia repens, Vallisneria, hornwort, and Lemon bacopa.

All do well in cool, low light to high light settings. For a fully aquatic setup I would recommend the vals and hornwort, as they won't grow out of the water and lose leaves where their stems are still submerged (I think it's a waste of energy for the plant to keep aquatic leaves when it can have access to more CO2 above water). Both these plants can't grow above water, so you don't have this issue.

 

[Crystalann0219]

Thanks for your replies. Right now ive got whati believe is parrots feather and its the only thing that doesnt completly die, its not thriving but its still alive but i really dont like it. For the larvae plants that break the surface would be good because Im going to try to keep some aqautic. But i definetly like the look of underwater foliage better. The store im going to had more plant varieties than Id ever seen for sale, but sadly they didnt have hornwort. Hopefully they will have the vallisneria.

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