Planting Marsilea Minuta.

[eklikewhoa]

This is for all those that bought some of this lovely foreground plant from the H.A.S. auction.

Here are some links with some info but it is a fern type plant so light requirement is low but like any plant there is out there with higher light, co2, ferts and nutrient rich substrate it will flourish and look 100x better.

Plantgeek.com

What I have learned by growing this plant myself is that you will not use all of what you bought!

Lets start....


First you have your little patch of Marsilea Minuta....



I break off a runner/rhizome of the Minuta to include several nodes...


Then I fold it to a smaller pinch and grab it with the tweezers to make inserting into the substrate easier...


Here I am in the water with the tweezers and Minuta....the tweezers make planting so much easier since they are a ton smaller then everyone's finger tips and they are more precise...


I plant the Minuta so that it is spread out to give room for it to fill in....if you have a smaller tank or bought that much Minuta you can plant it closer together to speed up the "foreground".


Here it is planted...I try to leave most of the stem exposed and the the least amount of it planted but for some that is not possible since there will be fish/critters to pull it up.


Here is how it should look in a few months or several depending on your tank's equipment.

[Cameo]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

This is a really cool looking plant. Now I wish I had bid on some.  But I believe I can talk fishysue into "donating" a pinch to me!

[Scooby]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

Wow that is beautiful!!  Now I really wish I would've went just so I could've gotten some of that.  Since I missed out, does anyone know where I can find some?

[Soni]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

That looks really cool. how much does the plant usually go for at the store? - a good size

[loopy119]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

hmmm....EK, maybe I need to get some of that from you sometime...lol, it is really beautiful! Maybe I'll have to make arrangements for you to bring some to sell to me at one of the GHAC meetings when I get better!! I really need to get some tweezers too...my dad hasn't found any yet...I think I saw some on e-bay that would work though!

Rebekah

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

Its a really nice plant...

I have seen about a half dollar size patch go for about $5 ea.

[thomas]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

For those who don't know, they are available at CityPet this afternoon when I came to buy some ADA fertilizers. Are these Marsilea Minuta easier to care than HC? I am having problem with the hair algae within these foreground HC. Can't manually remove hair algae by the tweezers b/c it took HC with them too.

EK, for your 30gal, is it the symptom of fertilizer lacking? Which one had you used the most? Step 3 and Special Bright, what else.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

Yes,City Pets is where you can find the marsilea minuta.

As for how....the HC fills in 10x faster and IMO looks good when it does...the Minuta will take a while to fill in. Both are foreground plants which is usually at the bottom of the tank so the light penetration is not as good down there.

As for my dosing regime....

Daily:
Brighty K
Brighty Lights
Step 3

Weekly after water change:
Green bactor
Green gain (same as ECA)
ECA (usually 2-3x a week depending on what I want to get at)
Python-git

With algae on that tank I usually just turn the co2 up till the fish are gasping then back it down some....and with the ABN you can forget about foreground cause it will not give it time to root properly.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

Yes,City Pets is where you can find the marsilea minuta.

As for how....the HC fills in 10x faster and IMO looks good when it does...the Minuta will take a while to fill in. Both are foreground plants which is usually at the bottom of the tank so the light penetration is not as good down there.

As for my dosing regime....

Daily:
Brighty K
Brighty Lights
Step 3

Weekly after water change:
Green bactor
Green gain (same as ECA)
ECA (usually 2-3x a week depending on what I want to get at)
Python-git

With algae on that tank I usually just turn the co2 up till the fish are gasping then back it down some....and with the ABN you can forget about foreground cause it will not give it time to root properly.

[fishlady]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

8O make the fish gasp????...is there an easier way to judge this?...without doing that to the fishies?...

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

It doesn't hurt them any...just a short supply of o2 just like if you were to run down the street and back....also it's for those that are more about the plantedtank then the fish that are in them...sounds cruel but then again so is caging them in small cubes.

I haven't had any problems with doing so and all the fish/inverts are pretty long lived in my tanks....actually really successful since they breed and look 100x better then most others. Also it's not an instant burst of co2 I slowly crank it up till I see that it is slowing the fish down which is what they do to conserve o2 like how we humans move less when it's hot outside.

It's no where near as bad as some putting fish in an un-cycled tank, putting fish in water that they are not acclimated to, providing a poor environment for a certain fish, keeping things together that should not be, putting a fish in too small of a tank, buying on a whim and not being prepared for them.

[thomas]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

I know fishes will be fine. What about the RCS and Bee Shrimp, and nerite nail? Will they fine with the low O2 water?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

They actually fare better then the fish do but the problem with them is that they don't show signs of low o2 other then by dieing. You have RCS with the CRS?

[Tiapan]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

i too am trying this plant, got some a ways back and finally got to plant it today, spread it out like Ek said , and how aboutthat i idnt need him to tell me. :wink:  but we will see how it does in my new tank.

[thomas]

Re: Planting Marsilea Minuta.

So far, I have found 1-2 RCS, 4 CRS, and 2 bee shrimp.