# Hygrophila costata doing well Low Tech



## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Hi,

I just wanted to report that Hygrophila costata is doing really well in my low-tech planted aquarium. I got it around the beginning of November. I believe a good LFS store had bought wholesale from Aquabotanic.

I run low-tech planted tanks both Quackenbush and Walstad style. The H. costata is in a 15 gal Walstad style tank (not too deep ~ 1" soil layer beneath a layer of coarse grit sand of equal depth) with a single 65w Coralife 6700 K fixture. I've tried several kinds of Hygrophila, and they usually will get too leggy under moderate light, or when my floating plants (Salvinia, Limnobium/Frogbit) get too dense. But this has done remarkably well without CO2 or water column fertilization! I've even had to trim it back already, and the upper leaves have taken on a very nice bronze hue. Its a tidy plant, and is my new "favorite" Hygrophila. The bioload in the tank is pretty light - a group of Endler's livebearers, some Javanese Rice Fish, Bumblebee shrimp and swarms of small snails. I've really lucked out in that this tank has not had any serious algae outbreaks <* knock on wood *> even for being so early in its established phase. I swapped in an established filter from a long-running tank, as well as some substrate to seed the new one.

I really like this plant, and plan to move some into my next setup. I think its quite graceful, as the leaves are pretty long, but the internode length is fairly tight. For those of you with a high tech setup, I'd bet this would be a breeze to grow.

Just wanted to share my experience!
-Jane


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## Sully (Nov 11, 2005)

I enjoy the look of this plant also. It's not commonly sold in the forum sections. Aquabotanic offers great plants. Anyways, ou're tank sounds interesting. Any chance you might debut it?

-SULLY


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Are you asking about pictures? I'm not digital-picture capable at the moment, but I'm hoping I will be able to by later this spring. I want to show that low-tech tanks can be attractive, too!

I'm glad someone else is a fan of this plant - I think its great! I also have "Red Temple" in the same tank, and I'm thinking of replacing it with the H. costata, as the "temple" is just too bright looking - it doesn't blend well.

Are you growing it with or without CO2? I'd be interested to see what the CO2 folks think of it, because sometimes plants that do well in one set of conditions are not a good fit for other situations - grow too fast, too slow, too leggy, etc.

-Jane


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Jane,
I just got some costata from AquaBotanic, and while it lost a lot of its old growth in transit, the surviving leaves were a beautiful lavender/green. But now that they've been in my tank they're getting more red/purple. I have some stems floating in my 40g tank under almost 5wpg and the leaves on those are turning brick red.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

I have found that the red, and dark kaki green coloring comes from the emersed growth. New growth underwater eventually turns a light green. Sometimes you get plants with a two tone green, light and dark. The red will not stay.










The red in this picture is actually L. glandulosa in the front, Alternanthera in with the costata.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Here's a picture of the new growth after four days in my 125g tank.


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Yes, mine looks more like Bharada's than the picure Robert posted. That bronzy brown coloration came up in all my new growth, too. 

Bharada, are you running CO2? I wonder if the rate of growth (ie, much faster with CO2 supplementation) has something to do with the coloration. Mine was a pale green when I got it (I think it was light-starved where I purchased it) and I was genuinely surprised at the bronzy tones that emerged. Its a very nice plant. The tip cuttings I trimmed off seem to have rooted quickly, as they're already putting out new growth. 

-Jane


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Is the plant supposed to be this stuff?

http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/hygcos.html


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Jane in Upton said:


> Yes, mine looks more like Bharada's than the picure Robert posted. That bronzy brown coloration came up in all my new growth, too.
> 
> Bharada, are you running CO2? I wonder if the rate of growth (ie, much faster with CO2 supplementation) has something to do with the coloration. Mine was a pale green when I got it (I think it was light-starved where I purchased it) and I was genuinely surprised at the bronzy tones that emerged. Its a very nice plant. The tip cuttings I trimmed off seem to have rooted quickly, as they're already putting out new growth.
> 
> -Jane


Jane, yes, I'm running CO2. It's in my 125g tank under 3wpg with CO2 up in the 60ppm range (KH11, pH 6.7-8 ). The red veined leaves in the picture grew out from buds in the four days I had it planted in this tank.


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## Jane in Upton (Aug 10, 2005)

Oh, mine never had the reddish veins, but the bronzish tones in the leaf tissue are what I was referring to, and they are still present. 

And yes, that link to the Florida species page is probably the same plant. There are no pictures of the submersed growth, and the emersed growth is of course quite different, but its probably the same plant. If you're in the area and can take some clippings from some you "find", by all means Do So! Its nice!

One of these days I'm gonna have to take a "ponding" trip to Florida!
-Jane


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Cavan,
I'll let you know once mine break the surface and put out some emersed growth.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

It is interesting that you guys are still seeing the darker colors in the mature growth. I would like to know what promotes the color. I find the plant interesting. It seems hardy and an easy alternative to polysperma, without being as large and over bearing as the corymbosa species. The fact that people are growing it in both low tech/non C02 as well as high tech tanks is also interesting.

I have found another interesting hygrophila from Indonesia that is simply identified as Nomaphila. I do not know what specie it is. I can describe it as a thin stem small leaf plant. The leaves are very short and thin. I only brought in a small amount last month to check it out and never put it on my WEB site. I ended up selling what I had to a shop in New Jersey and San francisco, but I have a large amount of it coming in this week. I will try and get a picture and if someone wants to try and identify it for me, I will send you a bunch of it. I can not do it justice by words alone. It looks unique to me, and attractive. I like the fact it is a small plant and appears to grow easily.


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## bharada (Apr 17, 2004)

Robert,
I believe the red coloration I was getting was due to a N deficiency. I had tinkered with my dosing solution and had cut back on the K2SO4. This caused the whole tank to start a slow downward spiral as I started developing a green film algae on most of my broad leaf plants—including the costata.

Now that I've returned the K2SO4 back to my normal amount the costata is all a bright lime green. Too bad, as the red veining was really pretty.


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## nbenda (Jun 20, 2011)

Hi all, new here. Looking for Hygrophila costata-- either seeds or cuttings, for a project aimed at testing a new biocontrol agent for the invasive Hygrophila polysperma.

Any information as to where I could get seeds or propagules would be MOST APPRECIATED! I saw people referring to AquaBotanic's website, but didn't get any hits when I searched their website.

Thanks very much!
Nicole


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

I know of someone who may still have some. Keep in touch...


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## 2ManyHobbies (Sep 11, 2007)

Shhhh....


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