# What are some slow growth small plants?



## pianomav (Jan 9, 2008)

Hi folks, i have a 5g nano tank and my stem plants are growing like crazy. I have trim almost every week. Since this is an office tank, i'd like to lessen the maintenance as much as possible. Do you guys have any recommendation on slow growth plants that stays small? 

I have the following list of plants in my tank:

erio cinereum
hygro polysperma
hygro sunset
hc
anubias petite nana
ludwidia repens
ludwidia arcuata
bacopa caroliniana
java fern
HM

the ones that grows fast are the hygros , ludwidias and hm. Thanks.


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## gibmaker (Jan 3, 2007)

some crypts stay pretty small, another favorite of mine is lobelia cardinalis. small form. I have never tried downoi, but I know it stays small as well, not sure about how fast it grows though.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Downoi is a GREAT plant and IME it takes a while to root and start to grow but then it grows fairly slow and you can keep it nice by topping it and re-planting the tops which will slow them down again, but the cycle for that would be 3 to 6 months depending on your light, ferts, co2 and some other things, but it would take a while.
It is a VERY attractive plant IMO as well.

I have found that many midground plants will stay small in smaller tanks with lower light and lower dosing, I even had a C. Wendtti in a 2.5 gallon that never overtook the tank, but there was 27w PC light and no Co2 or dosing and is was just a shrimp tank.

C. Parva (sp?) is one that stays small IIRC


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## thefishmanlives (Feb 15, 2008)

stay away from fast growing stems then.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

The king of slow growers, imo, Crypt parva.


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## 247Plants (Mar 23, 2006)

I dunno I have some penthorum sedoides that is a super slow grower.....

Maybe Co-King?


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## pianomav (Jan 9, 2008)

thanks for the suggestion guys...i think i'll go with Crypt parva. Time to look in the f/s forum.


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## Jookie (Sep 30, 2003)

I tried crypt parva. It took about 2 weeks to grow one leaf! I think it is a little too slow. I would second downoi. It's slow, but not crypt parva slow.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Cryp parva is kinda hard to find. Its hard for growers to mass produce it because it grows so slow.
Another slow growng Cryp is blassi. If you want something for a background plant in your little tank, that would work. Along the same line is Cryp ciliata and moehlmannii. But for something small, my favorites are petite nana, which you already have, and Lobelia cardinalis which someone else mentioned.


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