# Eriocaulon compressum: Where's The Love?



## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

It looks wild and beautiful. Unfortunately right now everyone wants to be like Amano- with groomed-till-it-screams 'landscapes'. 

I think that soon people will start looking into creating different sorts of natural, wild landscapes, letting plants 'do their thing'. compressum will definitely fit that style.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

interesting. i never knew how it scaled in the tank. may take you up on it. most of my tnks are jungles so it would fit right in


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

Yeah, you can keep it a little less wild than that. That's about 6-8 splits in that clump there. Here's a FTS for some more perspective. The tank is 36 x 18 x 18.


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

Luminescent said:


> It looks wild and beautiful. Unfortunately right now everyone wants to be like Amano- with groomed-till-it-screams 'landscapes'.


I know exactly what you mean. Personally, I'm getting really tired of scapes like that. It seems that hardly anyone can think outside the box and come up with anything original and exciting any more. Don't get me started...


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## Jonnywhoop (May 30, 2012)

I want an erio.... this one is deifnitely too big for my tank. I had two cinerums and they both died :\ plus I think your listing was like 50$ right?? haha


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Tinanti said:


> I know exactly what you mean. Personally, I'm getting really tired of scapes like that. It seems that hardly anyone can think outside the box and come up with anything original and exciting any more. Don't get me started...


not to add the derail but I agree as well. As for your plant Aaron, I think its awesome and would fit into a lot of places quite well. There pennies in my pocket wont allow me to own one anytime soon but you have my attention now


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

Jonnywhoop said:


> I want an erio.... this one is deifnitely too big for my tank. I had two cinerums and they both died :\ plus I think your listing was like 50$ right?? haha


This is not some plant that we jacked the price up on after getting a hold of it somewhere down the line. We collected it during one of the AGA conventions. Factor in the cost of the convention, the rental car, gas money and so on, even $50 is cheap (lowered anyway). Or, you could always go collect your own if that's too much for you. haha


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

Jonnywhoop said:


> I want an erio.... this one is deifnitely too big for my tank. I had two cinerums and they both died :\ plus I think your listing was like 50$ right?? haha


Yeah, like 3 years ago when we first released it. Not unreasonable given it cost me over $1K to fly to Florida for a week to go collecting. Let's just say I haven't turned a profit on that trip yet and it was 3 years ago.  

Anyhow, the purpose of this thread was really to see why people don't seem to like it. A lot of the feedback is that it is too large or looks too unmanicured. A lot of the popular aquascapes these days are ultra manicured underwater landscapes and I just don't get that aesthetic personally. Yeah, it's cool, but how sustainable is it save for that one perfect photograph? That's why I appreciate tanks like Tom Barr's 120 that are scaped, but the plants are the real show. I think this is the sort of plant that fits well in a scape like that. 

Maybe I just need to get off my butt, stop farming, and make an Eriocaulon compressum scape. :biggrin:


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## HSA1255 (Apr 2, 2013)

I love it and if it will grow in a low tech med light tank I'd be very interested. Reading up on care now...


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

HSA1255 said:


> I love it and if it will grow in a low tech med light tank I'd be very interested. Reading up on care now...


It would likely need to have CO2 and brighter lighting. I've never grown it low-tech, but most Eriocaulons won't do well.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

How does it compare to blyxa in terms of being uprooted? I eventually got tired of blyxa because it kept coming up and didn't seem worth the hassle.


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

HybridHerp said:


> How does it compare to blyxa in terms of being uprooted? I eventually got tired of blyxa because it kept coming up and didn't seem worth the hassle.


It is rather bouyant. I usually attach a few of those lead strips to the roots when I plant it and it stays put then.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

Tinanti said:


> I know exactly what you mean. Personally, I'm getting really tired of scapes like that. It seems that hardly anyone can think outside the box and come up with anything original and exciting any more. Don't get me started...


So you haven't seen 










yet. This is called 'having fun' 

Also, someone sent me a little plant as a give-away with a purchase I made. I can't remember who it was. When I got it, it was a kind of flattened, brownish sort of grass. I thought at first it might be Lil, so I planted it toward the back to see if it would live and it perked up pretty quick so I put it toward the front, middle: 

Can anyone ID? I'm thinking it might be an Erio but not positive.


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

Looks like _Blyxa japonica_ (bly-za). Eriocaulon always have fenestrate (windowed) leaves (like small squares or rectangles, more obvious at leaf base) and spongy, septate roots.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

Tinanti said:


> Looks like _Blyxa japonica_ (bly-za). Eriocaulon always have fenestrate (windowed) leaves (like small squares or rectangles, more obvious at leaf base) and spongy, septate roots.


Thank you. I have wanted a positive ID on that plant.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

AaronT said:


> Maybe I just need to get off my butt, stop farming, and make an Eriocaulon compressum scape. :biggrin:


I look forward to seeing that.

Ps- what is the little purple leaved plant behind and to the left of it?


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

Luminescent said:


> I look forward to seeing that.
> 
> Ps- what is the little purple leaved plant behind and to the left of it?


That is Rotala ramosior 'Florida'.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

AaronT said:


> That is Rotala ramosior 'Florida'.


If you ever need to clear some excess- hit me up. I love purple


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## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

I LOVE that plant and really want it but:

1) Too expensive. I dont want to risk so much on a plant I have no idea how to keep
2) I dont know how well it will do in hard water


Those 2 are the only reasons why I have not tried it.


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

samee said:


> 2) I dont know how well it will do in hard water


How hard are we talking?


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## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

I looked around my city water hardness and it stated 120 to 125 parts per million or mg/L (CaCO3).

I dont have a test kit so cant say for sure, all I know is my city water is hard.


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

samee said:


> I looked around my city water hardness and it stated 120 to 125 parts per million or mg/L (CaCO3).
> 
> I dont have a test kit so cant say for sure, all I know is my city water is hard.


It's the KH that's important for so called "soft water" plants. The KH / GH test kit from API isn't super accurate, but it's accurate enough for our purposes if you wanted to test it for sure.


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## FlyingHellFish (Nov 5, 2011)

Luminescent said:


> So you haven't seen
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It has a toy castle, that not thinking outside the box. If anything, that just a novelty. I think what your saying is Oliver Knott's "out of box" scape where he has plants around the tank. 

It's a lot harder creating natural scapes, especially believable ones. You take that castle away and the tank loses much of it's awe. It's a nice tank, especially for kids to look at which I guess that what you were going for. Anyways, my point is, I think the Amano-scapes are really hard to get right. 


@samee 

We have 4 - 5 kh water, not sure where in the city your from but you should have the same. What is interesting is our water is loaded with Ca, we have a higher ratio of Ca/litre than a bottle of flourish.


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

Posted some pretty cheap...


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## JoraaÑ (Jun 29, 2009)

Seems all folks these days prefer Weedy and easy stuff...Erios ain't hard to grow pple.


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## jerrybforl (Aug 19, 2008)

Just bought a couple from Sean Bartlett on FB. Looking forward to using it! Very nice plant...


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## Overfloater (Jan 12, 2004)

I just picked up some from Barr. Now time to try to weave it into my 48G somewhere.


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