Star Grass (Heteranthera zosterifolia)

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Extremely fragile leaf plant. It can live in non planted tank environment, but does better in 20 ppm of CO2, and 3watt/gal. The twirl of the leave growth marks it unique. In the larger view, it looks like Bamboo leaves. They make excellent middle ground plant with medium growth speed. They have very soft leaves which may be easily bent and ate by some fish. The lower leaves grow black or rot when it is low in light.

Zhima

Heteranthera is fragile only insomuch as its' stems are very thin and easily broken - in all other respects, it is very robust. I only have two 11-watt screw-in flourescent bulbs over my tank, and my Heteranthera literally tripled in size just two weeks after planting - and that was before I started adding CO2 to my tank! This is a great plant for beginners, but plan on pruning at least twice a week (from which it will quickly rebound). sMakes excellent cover for small, slow hunters like Betta species or juvenile Ctenopoma acutirostre (see my comments on that latter specie.

Mark F.

realburnsie

Like elodea and Rotala rotundifolia, it is a stem plant with narrow, lanceolate leaves, but its leaves are longer and are lighter green. Its many leafed crowns further distinguish it from elodea and Rotala rotundifolia. It looks especially star-like when individual stems are planted at different heights. Stargrass requires a pH of 6.0-7.5, a carbonate hardness of 3-15 degrees, and bright light in order to grow well.
Stargrass is very versatile in that it can be used as a foreground, mid-ground and background plant. The reason for this is that it can be trimmed and shaped just like a hedge. When used in the foreground it should be trimmed to about an inch or so; side shoots will develop below the cutting point and soon you will have a rich, green carpet. In mid-ground stargrass can be used to butt up against other plants, concealing the bottoms of those stem plants with scant leaves. Left to its own devices, it will grow about 20 in. tall, making it suitable for the back and sides.

Mark F.

In my comments after Zhima's (both in the first block), I forgot to second Zhima's comment about how some fish like to eat this species - this is especially true of omnivorous & herbivorous South American characins. I initially had some glo-light tetras in the same tank as my star grass, and they made a feast of it ... it would have been okay if they had nibbled off the tops (it would have saved me a lot of pruning time!), but they went for the mid-level leaves, which left the plants looking ragged and forlorn. The star grass quickly recovered, though, after the tetras were moved to another tank. So, while this is an easy, fast-growing plant, which provides great cover for some fish, you do need to be careful about which fish species you keep it with, or it could end up being used as a salad bar!