# Lillaeopsis plant border in 55-gallon (photos)



## sb483 (May 29, 2006)

Here's a 55-gallon Walstad-style tank with platies and corys. Started out with 2 platies and 6 corys, now more than 20 of each (they're still small). The lillaeopsis only looks like ground cover from the front








..but it hugs the sides of the tank leaving a big open space in the middle, with just a few scattered echinodorus tenellus plants









The playground in the center is great for the corys, they get some privacy from anyone watching in front of the tank eep: . Maybe they're the ones that "landscaped" it there in the first place, by foraging around the middle and pushing out any lillaeopsis roots that tried to grow there.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Nice tank! You helped me ID a plant I just got (lillaeopsis). The playground area is too funny, and I have no doubt that the cories are pulling up the roots and keeping that area "clean". The rotala in the back looks great with the pink tops. I assume it's rotala vietnam?

Oh, and is the tank always this cloudy?

-John N.


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## sb483 (May 29, 2006)

John N. said:


> Nice tank! You helped me ID a plant I just got (lillaeopsis). The playground area is too funny, and I have no doubt that the cories are pulling up the roots and keeping that area "clean". The rotala in the back looks great with the pink tops. I assume it's rotala vietnam?
> 
> Oh, and is the tank always this cloudy?
> 
> -John N.


It's rotala wallichii.

Believe it or not, the water isn't cloudy. Here's an earlier photo of the same tank:








The water looks cloudy in the first photo because I don't know how to take aquarium photos properly; when I take them at night, the digital camera's automatic brightness/contrast adjustment makes the water look cloudy. When there's light outside (a little bit, not too much) the water looks clear.


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## fish_lover0591 (Jan 11, 2007)

wow thats an awesome tank!!


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## DJKronik57 (Apr 17, 2006)

I don't think the fish are making the lillaeopsis grow like that, I've tried to grow it in bushy patches several times unsuccessfully. It seems to like to grow along long runners (similar to glosso) so it naturally grows in single lines like that. Getting it to become a real ground cover may involve trimming the runners and replanting them criss crossing each other.


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## mcbaby (Mar 16, 2010)

Nice tank. Is it still set up?


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