# cabomba versus hydrilla



## jojo jose (Jul 14, 2013)

As an offshoot to my other NPT thread, I have hydrilla planted in my first 20gal tank setup knowing well the easy plants should get things rolling correctly with the low-tech setup. The trimmings/extras of these I have planted in an outdoor tub near the existing 20gal tank. Since I have more room in the tub, I decided to keep other plants like hornwort, duckweed, ludwigia repens and water lettuce to see how they will adapt to natural lighting only. 

The most promising and rapid development I observed was that of the cabomba, which at first was thought to be a "medium" difficulty plant. Mine seems to be doing great at barely a week from planting compared to the hydrilla trimmings which were more than a week ahead in the setup. The hydrillas looked famished, rather pale green, and seemed thinning at the stems after almost three weeks of planting. This goes for those planted in the 20gal tank as well. 

On the other hand, the cabomba is looking quite lush, and the buds which came in with the plants are actually flowering already. There is also very limited noticeable leaf shedding which came as a surprise despite this plant being notorious for shedding! 

On a side note, the ludwigia repens is also doing fine with its tips now emerging from the water surface! The floaters are quite uneventful and developed as anyone would care to expect. 

Does anyone here have any insight(s) as to what influenced the difference between the hydrilla and cabomba?? I may just opt to rear a jungle of cabomba when I set up the bigger NPT since it looks very promising. I am somewhat disappointed at the hydrilla even though I thought this would perform better than the cabomba...


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

According to the research I've done on hydrilla its an extremely invasive plant and is basically indestructible. Although personally, the hydrilla I collected and kept is not as prolific as the literature suggests. It often seems to grow out leggy and pale compared with other plants in the tank. I've had it in several different tanks and it always looks like its struggling, so I think that it might just be the way the plant grows.

Are you sure you have hydrilla and not anacharis (Egeria densa)? Hydrilla has little hooks on the leaves compared with anacharis which is readily available at local petstores.

Anacharis doesn't like warm tropical waters, it prefers cold water in the 50-60F range and tends to die off at normal 78F temps.

Hydrilla









Anacharis (Egeria densa)


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## Byork (Oct 21, 2012)

Hydrilla does better for me with higher carbonate hardness than the cabomba or l. repens.


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## jojo jose (Jul 14, 2013)

Zapins said:


> According to the research I've done on hydrilla its an extremely invasive plant and is basically indestructible. Although personally, the hydrilla I collected and kept is not as prolific as the literature suggests. It often seems to grow out leggy and pale compared with other plants in the tank. I've had it in several different tanks and it always looks like its struggling, so I think that it might just be the way the plant grows.
> 
> Are you sure you have hydrilla and not anacharis (Egeria densa)? Hydrilla has little hooks on the leaves compared with anacharis which is readily available at local petstores.
> 
> ...


I'm very sure it is hydrilla especially having 5 leaves to a frond, as I thought it was elodea at first which only had 3 leaves to a frond. We exactly have the same sentiments, growth is not that prolific contrary to its invasive nature. Leggy and pale well describes my stock of hydrilla! I am beginning to suspect the "it must be in the water" thing which is affecting the hydrilla adversely, which the cabomba happens to adapt well...

As another offshoot, I am amazed at how the NPT enhances the total aquatic environment. Barely a week after setup, the 35gal tub I have with a couple of pregnant guppies now have quite a bit of fry swimming around already! Hats off to the busy livebearers! Good thing I had a modest amount of hornwort and duckweed, otherwise they would have been fair game to the larger fish!


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