# Brackish Plants???



## shrimpNewbie (May 6, 2011)

I've seen some hygros do okay with brackish, moss and subwassertang should do fine, Anubias are hardy also


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

If you might consider doing a riparium-style planting there are some _awesome_ plants that can grow very well like that. 

Here is a quick list...


mangrove trees - various species
_Pandanus tectorius_
leather fern
_Cryptocoryne ciliata_

An important point to consider is that while there are quite a few fully aquatic underwater plants that seem to be more or less tolerant of higher salinity, few of these are true brackish estuary habitat plants. If you want to make something like a brackish biotope with authentic plants, then mangrove trees and their associates are a much better way to go.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Hydrophyte - I have Cryptocoryne ciliate now and I actually am thinking about a riparium-style planting.

I want this simple the Cryptocoryne ciliate, maybe somerginh like a Val or Sag? Maybe some Java fern. I'd like to keep it S.E. Asian. Fish will be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7eG4zXK8vI


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## klaus07 (Nov 23, 2011)

You can add C lingua to that as well as Crinum natans and aquatica. Philippine java fern is found in areas of tidal influence as well.


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

I've had good luck with regular old java ferns. Also jungle vals.

The real trick is a really slow acclimation period (weeks) and keeping a low sg.


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

On a sale site, it lists Bacopa carolina, glosso, micro sword, crinum species, A. crispus, and tiger lotus as brackish plants. Not sure about all of that, but I'm sure they'd get tons of complaints if it wasn't true.


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## Tinanti (Aug 25, 2005)

_Lilaeopsis_ and _Eriocaulon parkeri_ often grow in brackish habitats.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Old Punk thanks for posting your tank. What salinity range do you keep yours at? Is that a marine substrate?

I'm thinking MTS with a crushed coral/shell rubble cap. It will be in my DIY rimless 41 g; tank.









Water level won'r be very high.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Klaus - Tes I was aware ob C lingua. It does look very similar to C. ciliate but at a more mandible size..


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

This is a kind of a cool fully aquatic plant that is a true estuary species....

http://aquaplant.tamu.edu/plant-identification/alphabetical-index/widgeon-grass/

It might be near impossible to find. I think it's an endangered species. It's not Asian either.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Yes, that is kinda cool.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Here's what some of those mangrove trees and associated species can look like. The tallest tree in the middle is a white mangrove. 










I tried to grow _Bacopa monnieri_ in there too in the slightly brackish water, but it died. I remember seeing it pretty close to the beach in Florida and I wondered if it was salt-tolerant.

I really like to grow _Pandanus_ as a riparium plant. Here is the _P. tectorius_ just starting to grow its prop roots.










I used white aragonite sand in combination with a few manzanita stumps in there and it looked pretty good.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Seeing the young mangrove I would either need to rethink where this tank will be OR plan on a Mangrove Bonsai.


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Awesome thread! I also lookin for some brackish plants for my opae ula habitat.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

DogFish said:


> Seeing the young mangrove I would either need to rethink where this tank will be OR plan on a Mangrove Bonsai.


They are easy to accommodate so long as you have space to raise the light up. The white mangrove and black mangrove respond fairly well to pruning so long as you let them reach a medium size and so long as you don't take off more than a node or two. Pruning encourages back-budding, so you can end up with a more bushy plant. Red mangrove is more touchy and really doesn't like pruning.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Thanks for the mangrove culture tips..


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I really cool thing about black mangrove is that they grow these pneumatophores.



















The white mangroves also grow little knobs on the roots, but they are less pronounced. And red mangrove of course grows those awesome stilt roots.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Good overview pc - http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/FAQ/2d.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samolu


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

DogFish said:


> Old Punk thanks for posting your tank. What salinity range do you keep yours at? Is that a marine substrate?
> 
> I'm thinking MTS with a crushed coral/shell rubble cap. It will be in my DIY rimless 41 g; tank.
> 
> ...


Yup, that's what it was. Crushed coral cap over mts. I think My sg was 0.005.

That tank had a constant algae problem. If I had to do it over again, I would use Aragonite and ro water. (Just a hunch..)

It had this crazy purple algae that I think was a variant of bga.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Old Punk - RO water... What is your tap water like?


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

It sucks. My car's windows are all etched from the sprinklers. I keep waiting for thew hot water heater to explode. We're really close on a treatment plant so we gets all the chemicals.


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## dj2606 (Mar 27, 2009)

I have grown Micro sword, NL java fern, anubias (except for nana petite which died off over time). Anubias nana was fine though


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Old Punk - Got it 

My water comes out a 7.5 I did well when I had Marine tanks & African cichlids. I pick my Fresh water plants based on my water. I should be O.K for Brackish.


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

dj2606 said:


> I have grown Micro sword, NL java fern, anubias (except for nana petite which died off over time). Anubias nana was fine though


Thanks, I've got reg., red, needle and trident. I'm going to try Red & Trident in this tank


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Comming along nicely now. I have 6 pots of Cryptocoryne ciliate, 50 Dwarf Sag on the way, Red Java and I just found Red Mangrove on E>Bay.

Everything will be outside in the 40 to grow out this summer. I'kl start the Brackish switch over in July. I want to get everything going strong for a month.


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