Eleocharis Help

E. acicularis is tall, around 5-6".
E. parvula is short, under 2" usually.
E. sp. "Belem" is even shorter, 1.5" and curls downwards under higher lighting than E. parvula. Difficult to come by and only available from other hobbyists. Expensive.

I prefer the look of E. parvula since it stays upright and only curls slightly. It grows 1.5" in my tank so there isn't much difference from "Belem".

parvula can grow pretty tall if left alone.

how do you keep parvula short? lots of trimming? or is more a matter of light? I have e. parvula and I let it grow and it gets to be about 4-5 inches tall. I've only recently started to mow it more frequently.

Does E. parvula get that tall? I've never had it taller than 2".

I've gotten both potted and tissue cultured parvula and both got upwards of 4 inches when you let it.

Yeah I got mine from Dempsey who got it as TC plants. Does this mean I should mow it like glosso and train it to stay short?

Yes, trim it down. The grass will be forced to produce runners. You can always trim those blades that are a lot taller than the rest.

Monster Fish said:

Yes, trim it down. The grass will be forced to produce runners. You can always trim those blades that are a lot taller than the rest.

Click to expand...

oh man... more runners? this plant is a damn weed in my tank. I have to keep pulling it out and giving it away >_>

It's rather invasive. The only way to slow down its spread is to pull up sods of it from the substrate. Barriers in the substrate won't work because it will just grow over them.