# Bacopa?



## Calmia22 (Aug 20, 2011)

I bought some java ferns at my lfs and the guy threw in some poor looking bacopa that has been sitting in a tank with only a little sunlight to help it. It wasn't even anchored into the substrate. 

I took all of it, pieced it out and put it into my tank. They have been in there about a week now. There is already new growth, and the stems are beginning to straighten out. 

Where is it normally used in a tank? It seems pretty common, but oddly enough finding specific info is hard to come by. The biggest leaves (which some are dying off) are only about a centimeter wide. 

Should they all be planted together super close, and how fast do they grow generally?

This is from a few days ago


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## Fish Ed (Oct 25, 2011)

I have this bacopa but I have no idea what bacopa it is, but it is a bacopa. I bought it as bacopa australis, but i don't think australis grows vertically, does it? I have this plant in my aquarium for a long time, they are fairly hardy, it grows fast in high lighted tanks but when it grows too tall the bottom leaves always die and it becomes like naked at the bottom, or that's what happen to mine. Mine reached the surface a couple of times. Some of my bacopa's leaves came off completely except the stem, it grew back but it is like naked at the bottom. I don't know why some of mine doesn't grow straight? But this is not the most hardy bacopa I've kept. I've tried growing this plant floating, it will just grow side ways. I've also grown this emersed.


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

Looks like Rotala rotundifolia.


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## Brian10962001 (Dec 6, 2011)

That looks like Bacopa Monnieri and you can tell by the folded leaves and twisty stems it's been growing floating. It will root well into your gravel but I've never seen the stems straighten out. You can cut it off low and it will sprout out and come up straight with nice flat leaves. If it's left floating it will shoot out roots like mad. I just trimmed a bunch of roots, split off my new growth, and planted a bunch of Bacopa with a root tab in the middle to get rid of all the twisted stems I had.


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## LetThereBeFish (Dec 7, 2011)

Tinanti said:


> Looks like Rotala rotundifolia.


I agree. I bought rotundifolia before, and it looked like this in the beginning. It will change dramatically. It may be a bocopa sp. You will just have to see how it grows.

Edit* Just kidding! Took another look at it and it does look like bocopa monnieri.


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## psalm18.2 (Oct 16, 2010)

Cut the stems down and bury closer to the substrate for less leggy stems.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

It's a bunch plant, you wanna plant it in groups of 3-5 stems per spot for the nicest look, otherwise they just look kinda weird


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

NOT a _Bacopa_. That's how _R. rotundifolia_ looks when it grows emersed. It will change when submersed. Looks like that's already starting.


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## Fish Ed (Oct 25, 2011)

I'm pretty sure its not a R. rotundifolia, as I have this plant and R. rotundifolia together, looks nothing a like. I also grown R. rotundifolia emersed, and it doesn't look like that.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

I have Bacopa Caroliniana and it looks similar guys. The leaves look too rounded for Rotala which I also have in the tank.


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

Again, it looks that way because it has been grown emersed. The name rotundifolia literally means _round leaves_. The leaves are not fleshy as they would be in a Bacopa, nor do they have the same pattern of veins. You can even see the new, familiar growth coming in!


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## scream-aim-fire (Nov 4, 2008)

it is Bacopa Monnieri for sure, i had a bunch growing floating in my tank and it was twisted looking just like that.


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

Sigh....


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## scream-aim-fire (Nov 4, 2008)

every pic i have looked at of Rotala rotundifolia looks nothing like it, and you can tell that its bacopa monnieri by the shinny slick stem. i have some growing in my tank.

can we get some clearer up close pics that might help


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=39
(last pic)
http://www.ozwatergardens.com.au/rotala-rotundifolia
http://www.flickr.com/photos/haile/2448670197/
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/rotalarotundifolia/interesting/
http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/Nonindigenous_Species/Rotala_rotundifolia/rotala_rotundifolia.html
http://www.gri.msstate.edu/ipams/species.php?CName=Roundleaf toothcup


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## scream-aim-fire (Nov 4, 2008)

ok links 1-3 look nothing like it. link 4 near the bottom kinda looks like it but not really. links 5 and 6 again look nothing like it, every pic the plants have red stems nothing like the plant above. 

im still gonna say its bacopa monnieri. have you looked at pics of bacopa monnieri and compaired them.

anyways im not going to sit here and waist time arguing about what plant it is. like i said im going with bacopa monnieri on this one, but who knows im no expert so i could be wrong.


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## Fish Ed (Oct 25, 2011)

It does look a lot like bacopa monnieri.



> Again, it looks that way because it has been grown emersed.


Calmia said that it isn't anchored in the substrate meaning its grown floating, not emersed. Rotundifolia's leaves are more thinner than that. Rotala's stem doesn't look like that, this is more twisted, thicker and the color looks different.


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## Brian10962001 (Dec 6, 2011)

Caroliniana and monnieri look extremely similar, with the former having larger leaves. It sounds like it had been in the tank it was floating in for a minute, and they advertised it as Bacopa. I would imagine it is but time will tell.


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## scream-aim-fire (Nov 4, 2008)

found a pic of the floating mass of bacopa monnieri that i had in my tank, looks like the plant in post one to me.


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

Hopefully the OP will take another pic in a few weeks so we don't have to "waist" any more time. The correct answer will be even more obvious than it is now.


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