# Questions about anacharis



## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

I went to Petsmart today and bought the only decent looking bunch of anacharis that they have, and right now have it sitting in the sink in the bag of water that I bought it in.

I'm planning on giving it a good rinsing before putting it in my tank, but should I do anything more then rinse it with tap water? 

Would it be best to just float it in the tank and see how it does, or would it be best to bury the bottom in the sand in my aquarium? At Petsmart they had the bottom buried in gravel.

I read it likes high to medium light, so I'm guessing it would do best in the middle of the aquarium where the light it the brightest? I could stick it in the corner but it would get less light there.

I read partially feeds off of fish waste, does that mean that I should leave some in the tank, or keep up with turkey basting it out of the tank as I see it, or is that one a complete myth?

I read that Anacharis like cooler temps. My tank is usually pretty steady between 78 - 80 degrees, should I lower the temp to 76 to 78? At the moment I have a Betta and 2 Nerite snails in the tank, along with 2 anubia nanas.

If I have success at growing the anacharis, should I trim it and do you trim it? I read they can grow up to 3 feet. If I do trim it does it grow from cuttings?

Thanks for any answers y'all can provide! Back to seeing if I can find any answers though research, or find more confusion and questions to ask...


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## RickyTan (Jan 26, 2017)

Rinsing it with tap water is fine, but wont necessarily kill snails/pest/etc if there are any, but you should be fine. Anacharis grows like a weed, I used to use FERTS and Co2 but have stopped and they are still growing at a decent rate. I've grown it floating and planted, but I prefer leaving it to float. I usually don't trim my anacharis unless it is planted and gets too tall... whenever I leave it floating I let it grow into a huge mess of a ball. I keep my tanks at around 82, but i've had better results growing anacharis at lower temperatures at around 74-76.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

I don't know much about plants but can say most prefer lower temperatures. However since you have a betta in the tank, I suggest not changing your temp.

Out of all plants I find anacharis the most adaptive. Believe it or not, I currently have some in a black tub, totally covered. It gets light only a few hours a day when I feed my bettas. 

With slow changes, their needs can be altered. Yes, they won't be as big (leaves and stem) as normal plants and can't last long out of water (mine dry up in a few minutes, while normal anacharis can last more than 15 minutes). However, once they've adapted to your environment, they won't need special care.

Some may melt/fall apart during the adapting process - specially if the changes were too drastic. But the surviving stems should regrow.

IMO you could remove fish wastes as the nutrients plants need should have been released into the water. 

To multiply them, Simply cut the stems, about 4-8". Either anchor 3-5 stems per bunch or let them float freely. Each stem should grow new stems which you can cut and rebunch once they are 3-4". In ideal conditions, each original stem may grow more than one new branch. . . . Not sure how long they can grow, but it's quite long.

I used to have a few blurry tubs dedicated to growing anacharis. No extra anything. Simply fill tub, add plants about 1-2inch apart (perbunch). I could harvest about 20-50 new 6-8" stems every 2 weeks. . . . Per tub. Any with hair algae were destroyed, often a tub full of plants.

Sorry for wordy reply


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