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Re: pearlgrass

> Can Baby Tears be trained to grow horizontally like Hydrocotyle or Wisteria?
> That is, could I pin it down until the roots attach it that way? Has anyone
> tried this? (What can I say, the Glosso's growing really slowly and my middle
> foreground looks so darned empty ... )
> 
> - -Molly & the fish

The Amano pearl grass(2 leaves per node) is quite nice and is very effective
foreground plant. It does well in low light tanks and prunes very well. You
can create a nice turf by cutting like hair. You can also do this gloss but
it tends not to look good unless you are selective and keep up on it from
the start before it piles too high. I am looking at both methods to see how
much better one is over another(the other is the sod piece removal method).
You can let the pearl grass go and it recovers very fast. It's not as
invasive either and stays in good color even when abused/shaded.
That and Hair grass are my favorite based on maintenance requirements. Dwarf
clover is good too. Hydrocotyle and Wisteria are tough foreground plants
IMO. I've done them but ugh! The wisteria is fine if you like to trim a lot
or have a 135 gallon or larger. Sometimes that's the only plant at the
store:)
If your gloss is growing slow, it's nutrients/CO2 in most cases. I've had it
grow well at low light(1.66-2 watts a gallon) values. Lower light will slow
it down but it's still fast compared to other plants. It needs pretty much
what most plants need. Keep things in a decent range and it will go 1-2
inches a day. It take a little while, 1-2 weeks to "take", same with
hairgrass, but really goes nuts thereafter. I chop sod pieces out and watch
the new growth come running in. Read back in the archives about it. There
should be plenty. 

Regards, 
Tom Barr