Anacharis is an excellent plant for beginners and newly planted aquariums. It is an undemanding plant. This plant controls algae by competing for nutrients and produces oxygen in freshwater aquariums. This plant has min.requirements like Temp bet. 18-28 degrees atleast 0.5 w/l, PH 6.4-7.5 Alkalinity 3-8 dKH. It usually floats in tanks and ponds but can be buried in substrate. It can be propogated by cuttings which should be plant a few cms apart from each other.

This plant doesn't like Excel so its better to avoid otherwise it'll die in no time and u'll have a heap of needles (leaves) in yr aquarium which is a headache to clean.

I have this plant in a CRS shrimp. It lost all its leaves in the beginning and within a week sprung back it simply adapted to the change in water parameters. It changes leaf, size color and appearance in diff.tanks. I got Anacharis with big and dark green leaves from my LFS but later on when this plant got adapted to my tank parameters it simply starting sprouting new smaller and bright green leaves

 

I personally love it in my living room community tank. I have it shoved on one side and am making a little forest of it. I started with one 1/2 dead bunch the lovely ladies at petsmart gave me for free. It grows kinda slow for me because that tank is lower light, but it still grows. Every time I get a new shoot, I'll snip it and bury that so I have another plant. Whenever I decide I hate it, I can yank it out easily.

It's not the prettiest plant, but it serves its purpose, and my African Dwarf Frogs looove climbing on it.

 

I got some at Petsmart thinking I'd use it to hide my heater, the next day most of it was dead and gone, the day after that all of it was done for. Oddly enough, that store hasn't had any since.

I'm a total noob though, so don't take my experience as anything meaningful.

 

I have some growing great in one of my tanks while in another it completely melted away. Not sure why though. Not enough light maybe? I am just using the stock hood that came with the ten gallon.

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Get shrimped out!

 

It is a evasive weed in most states so hard to come by. Grows natural out here in Nor Cal in the water ways. It grows like crazy with a little bit of light. Does hate excel and will die of a bit in a new tank

 

What's a "little bit of light"?

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Get shrimped out!

 

I tried it in my old tank and it would look great and then start to melt...then it would look great again a week later and then start to melt. It's more sensative than you would expect considering its invasive weed status.

Personally, though, it was among my favorites when it looked good.

 

I have a 5 gallon snail tank with a 10 watt CFL in a hood. It's arranged in about the worst orientation possible. Other then the snails, the tank's only got a bunch of anacharis in it, and it grows like a weed. The tank is literally full of it.

I had it in another tank, where it was basically in a shadowed part of the tank, still grew like crazy. I had to take it out because it was taking over the tank despite constant trimming.

So in my experience, "little bit of light" pretty much means "it has any amount of light".

 

Had some originally in my 75G..
Was some really weird stuff haha. Like a few other people, i had problems with it melting and then growing and then melting, etc. etc.. Lol. Id stay away from it personally.

 

I had it under a little bit of light but it all literally melted away. Weird.

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Get shrimped out!

 

It always melted for me in my low light/low tech tanks - but not before shedding an unGodly amount of pine needle like crap into my filters...

 

Mine melted to under low light, my only stem that did!

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my jewel cichlid tank is full of floaters blocking out most of the light and i've always had it grow great just kinda floating on the bottom.... only problem i've ever had is when I try to bury it it always melts at ground level anything I have in the substrate or held down by a rock just melts away.

 

I find that it hates temperatures above 78. My aquariums are usually 79-81 so it would always die off never to return.

 

That's gotta be it then. The tank it melted in is around 80 for my Betta.

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Get shrimped out!

 

It likes cooler temps and hard water. While it's found on every continent except Antartica it's a true weed in every sense just not the best plant for a planted aquarium.

 

so to 'splain... is too much, let me sum up:


cons in a tank:
melts in excel
melts in higher temps
melts when happy and regrows, leaving you with a mess
melts when unhappy and doesn't regrow, same mess

pros in a tank:
they have it in most any chain pet store.
looks dense and green for a few seconds between melts


Ok, I think it made that decision easy

 

It never melted in my main tank

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Get shrimped out!

 

I think, instead of anacharis, perhaps try Egerias najas, it is a very similar looking plant but the leafs are serated and from what I hear, it tolerates higher temperatures better. I just like the look of it more and I've recently just bought some for myself as well so we'll see how does in the comming months.