Roots all over the place

["Alysoun McLaughlin" <alysoun.mclaughlin at ncsl_org>]

1)  I have some fish whose idea of a good time (or at least, on the kribs'
part, their idea of a good nursery for their eggs) is to rearrange their
furnishings, particularly the substrate.  This is fine with me, except that
the roots of a few of my plants (lilies, crispus) keep getting exposed, and
I have trouble forcing them to stay put.  Pushing them back down into the
substrate, I've discovered that the root network has become so dense that I
can't even move the gravel in a few parts of the tank, without serious
effort, and exposure of the roots.  Will it be helpful for the other plants
in the tank if I pull up the plants and clip off some of these extended
roots?  Would the plants themselves go into a dormant phase, or otherwise
suffer?

2)  What causes plants to send out roots along the stem?  I have a serious
problem with this on a few of my bunch plants (ludwigia, hygrophilia).  I
realize that some of this is normal, but when an individual stalk develops
root hairs along its entire stem, I can't help but wonder if there's a
problem.  Could this even be because of the competition in the substrate
with other plants' roots?

Thanks!

Alysoun McLaughlin
alysoun at planetall_com

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