# Vallisneria nana experience?



## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

This week I got a plant I have been looking for for quite a while, Vallisneria nana. All I really know about it is that its native to Australia. It is a very very thin leaf Val, and I think it stays pretty short according to Tropica. It is a cute plant. A Val for a nano tank! Anybody out here growing it? Can you share any info about it?


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I hope you're joking about it being for a nano tank. Vallisneria nana gets 3+ feet long.  It likes more alkaline water, takes a couple weeks to adjust to a tank and needs more light than the typical vals. It's a great plant for large tanks.


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

Aaron,
There seems to be another Val nana going around that is much smaller than the plant you sent me a while ago. It almost looks like Blyxa japonica, but taller. A friend who had it in his tank got his from Japan (about a year ago) and it has been showing up in commercial shipments from Indo here in Hawaii in the past 3 or 4 months. i have no pictures of it, but it is much different from the monster that you know (nana doesn't quite make sense for your Val, don't you think?).
I think we have another case of mistaken identities on our hands...


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## david lim (Mar 30, 2004)

my val nana grows like crazy. It's nice and thin-leaved and like aaront says will get pretty long. However, it's a nice looking plant, especially if you can keep it under control .

David


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Aaron said:


> Aaron,
> There seems to be another Val nana going around that is much smaller than the plant you sent me a while ago. It almost looks like Blyxa japonica, but taller. A friend who had it in his tank got his from Japan (about a year ago) and it has been showing up in commercial shipments from Indo here in Hawaii in the past 3 or 4 months. i have no pictures of it, but it is much different from the monster that you know (nana doesn't quite make sense for your Val, don't you think?).
> I think we have another case of mistaken identities on our hands...


I'm positive that the ID is correct on the one I had and am referring too. It is called Vallisneria nana, not Vallisneria sp. 'nana', which may be the case with this smaller one. Does that make sense?

The plant I had I got from Ghazanfar who got it personally from Christel Kasselmann so we're pretty confident on the ID. I wonder what the smaller one you're referring to looks like?


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

Maybe Robert can post a pic of it as it sounds like its the same thing that's been showing up here. 
I no longer have the V. nana that you sent me either as i passed it on to others in our local club so I never did get to put them side by side to really look. There is a possibility that it could be a case of difference in culture (as in the whole narrow/ needle leaf java fern saga) and we probably won't know for sure until these two plants are grown side by side.
And then there is the small possiblity that the experts were wrong on this. Not a knock on the experts, but even they are mistaken sometimes.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

OK, thats why I asked the question! Somebody told me they read on Tropica is was a short plant... so it likes alkaline water, like most Vals I guess, and the leaves stay real narrow? It is a cute looking plant. I think Lowcoaster has had it at one time or another, but this is the first time I have gotten my hands on it.

I can post a picture from the net, its not my picture










So don't go by what I said, I don't know if its tall or short, but the leaves are very narrow


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

It's hard to tell from the picture, but that could be it. The leaves are a darker green and very thin. They also are a circular shape instead of the usual blades.


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## Aaron (Feb 12, 2004)

Don't worry Robert, I'm not pinning you to that statement of this plant being short. If it turns out that I am wrong here, then I'll stand corrected. I will say this though, when I say that this "new" V. nana is short, I mean it in terms relative to other valls. I think every Vall I've ever kept grew to at least three feet, sometimes more. The V. nana I've seen lately has shown to be no more than 18 inches. Not exactly a plant for a nano, but it looks nice in a 20H.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

I've had this plant and in good conditions it grows pretty long.

The Tropica website states a height of 30-80cm (12-31") though in nature it seems to only grow to 15cm (6"). Mine always reached the surface of the water.

It's a nice plant in that you get the long grasslike look with much thinner leaves that the standard val.


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## bensaf (Jun 20, 2005)

I too am growing this plant at the moment, had it for over a year now.

Yes it does get very tall, up to 3 feet but the leaves do remain very very thin so having them stretch across the surface is not a biggie.

It seems to stay a tad shorter and thinner the brighter the light is. 

Spreads runners very rapidly so can pop up all over the tank. Looks great when it forms a thick grove.


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## jsenske (Mar 15, 2004)

There's DEFINITELY 2 varieties-- though they look identical. One gets way longer than 3 feet-- I had some in a 36 inch tall tank that draped another 3 feet over the top. I pulled blades out of there that were every bit of 6 feet in length!!
The other type stays much shorter, maybe 30 inches max depending on lighting but can be kept at 18 inches or so easily. Not for a Nano though, IMO.


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## Rob G (Oct 19, 2004)

To those who have indicated they have experience with this plant, will you post a photo of it in the context of an aquascape?


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## mikenas102 (Feb 8, 2006)

Bringing back an old thread here. Can anybody that has been growing this (I've got the longer type I think) tell me if it is sensitive to Excel like other Vals are?


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

Mine did ok with excel but I don't dose it regularly.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

I don't know about Excel, but I have been selling this plant for quite a while since I first posted this, and I did some research for an article I wrote about Australian plants that hasn't yet been published in Aquarium Fish.. there are two variations of this plant found in its native habitat in Australia. Those that grow in receding flood waters are much shorter. When the plant was first discovered by who ever it was, I have his name somewhere, it was the smaller variation. It was given the name nana to mean small or dwarf, (15 to 24"). Later a much longer leaf version was also discovered, (3 feet), but the name remained the same. The difference in size seems to be more enviornmental. In the aquarium, its all basically the same size, not what aquarium hobbyists would consider dwarf, but the leaves are very narrow, much more so than any other Val. It grows easy. My water here is soft, (I don't know what it is exactly, but its soft) and it grows fine with lttle effort, so very hard water is not needed.


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