Hygrophila odora grows pretty slow for me and makes a nice background plant in my 125 gal tank. I only trim this plant every 3-4 months and replant the tops. My Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Cuba' is almost touching the top of the water and the H odora has only grown about 1 1/2".

 

Bacopa Caroliniana grows slow for me and is a pretty plant.

 

+1 for the Bacopa. I just got some Caroliniana and it's growing verrrry slow. It's also one of those stem plants that doesn't send out ugly root runners like ludwigia and others do. It's such a low maintenance plant.

I used to have another sp of Bacopa that looked very similar, maybe mommieri, and it grow faster under less intense light (PCs vs the T5s I have now).

 

sweet I like the look of the bacopa. Any others?

 

Does it have to be a stem plant? What about a nice sword?

 

Not at all; any background plant. You thing swords would do? I've never actually ventured into swords.

 

If you want plants to grow more slowly then you need to lower your light levels.

 

HC in foreground; can't lower light levels. Might as well look for slower growing plants

 

The swords I had grew enormous very quickly, but there are alot of different types out there.

 

needle leaf java fern grown on a long piece of driftwood can make a nice "curtain". growth is slow, but not as slow as regular java fern.