# Slow growing background/stem plants



## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

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".


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## nemosreef (Oct 19, 2007)

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


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

+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).


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## acropora1981 (May 30, 2010)

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


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

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


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## acropora1981 (May 30, 2010)

forddna said:


> 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.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

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


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

acropora1981 said:


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


 
I kept mine under PCs. They were big to begin with, but I don't recall ever noticing new growth. But leaves do die off here and there, one at a time. Nothing that would make the plant look bad! Just snip it to remove the ugly browning leaf.

It's been a couple years since I had them, and it was my first tank, so my memory is fuzzy and I wasn't very experienced yet back then either. Hopefully someone else can chime in on them.

Mine were Amazons. Tanks was a 120 (4x2x2)


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

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


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## acropora1981 (May 30, 2010)

lauraleellbp said:


> 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


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## milesm (Apr 4, 2006)

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.


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