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RE: Riccia and hairgrass
Dan asked if there's a way to entangle the Riccia like Amano does with
Hairgrass.
I played with this method and other methods also. I, like some other folks,
have an issue with the sinking darker Riccia. Stay away from it period!
I have had the floating type of Riccia in hairgrass with some success. The
Hairgrass will generally out compete the Riccia and becomes quite invasive,
going into the corners. Riccia likes the lighted areas better.
Done on a small scale with a small tank this techique is workable for me.
Some of Amano's large tanks with a thicket all along the front and
foreground doesn't look good IMO. More like a tangled mess that needs lots
of work all the time. He seems to try to make up for it with nice orderly
groups in the backgrounds. Wildness with order. I like the idea but not the
long term choice. OK, I suppose if you like lots of maintenance. I don't. To
each their own.
The hair grass will take off fast. After it's going well add Riccia. Make
sure there's no sinking Riccia in there! Remove any you find! You will have
to replant the Riccia that floats up from grow out or be a very dilegent
pruner. Most of the mass will stay entangled most of the time. Good scissors
are a must. Lower lighting levels will keep the pruning amount down too.
Hairgrass by itself is a beautiful study. Adding rocks or later adding some
background plants is very nice. Careful about adding the Riccia. The stuff
is hard to remove once it's in there!
Clumps of Riccia added under Anubias leaves in brighter areas can give
an easy to deal with effect also. I use Anubias nana covering a cork back
ground and add Riccia with the bright pearly color from the bubbles
accenting the dark Anubias leaves.
Hope this helped.
Regards,
Tom Barr