Macro I’d?
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Hard to see under the lighting, got any white light pics?
@Eagle_Steve or @fishguy242 may know with a whiter pic...
@Eagle_Steve or @fishguy242 may know with a whiter pic...
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PM’s identified it as paddle grass.
There is also ~1 lb. of Australian live rock in the sump but there is no grass on the rock. This paddle grass probably hitch hiked either on the small piece of live rock or the Fiji mud.
There is also ~1 lb. of Australian live rock in the sump but there is no grass on the rock. This paddle grass probably hitch hiked either on the small piece of live rock or the Fiji mud.
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It certainly seems to have the vascularization of a seagrass. You can confirm it by (gently) pulling it off the sand and inspecting the rhizome. You should see a root structure and markedly different rhizomal tissue. I definitely know a few people who would be jealous to see that kind of seagrass growth in a home aquaria.
Yea, looks like Paddle grass (Halophila decipiens).
Idk where you’re based, but that stuff is really hard to come by here in NY. Ive been trying to order some for ages. In the US, it’s collected near the Indian River Lagoon, FL.
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I looked this up on Wikipedia and it is an annual plant that flowers and seeds. It makes sense that seeds could have been mixed in with the Fiji mud. How does one care for an annual plant in a sump? Does it need seasons?
I don’t actually know if their seasonal cycle remains the same in an aquarium.
This is slightly unrelated, but I once kept an azalea indoors and it bloomed for 2-3 months longer than the plants I had outdoors.
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It’s only an annual in some locations - it’s a (typically short-lived) perennial in others. Either way, the population is known to boom and bust, so unless you have a male plant and a female plant in there that you can get setting seed, it likely won’t be in your tank for too long.
I’ll try and see if I can find more specific info to try and help you out with the care, but to get it setting seed it may well need at least some seasonal replication (temperature, light intensity, and light duration are all seasonal changes known to influence flowering and fruiting - for paddle grass specifically, from what I’ve read so far, temperature is thought to play a main role in the process).
Some good reading on paddle grass:
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So, a little more research:
Halophila decipiens seems to prefer relatively low light (based on the info I've found, I would guess it would like right around 100-130+ PAR, I wouldn't go lower than 100 or higher than 150, but it may be able to tolerate higher levels; if you wanted to simulate the seasonal cycles, then you would drop the light to ~50 PAR to simulate wet seasons and raise it back to 100+ for dry seasons) and tropical temps (~70F for wet season and ~80F for dry season), and at least some populations are known to flower and seed year-round. So, as long as the conditions are right (i.e. as long as the plant has enough light and a high enough temp), it may not need seasonal replication to seed/thrive in a tank.
I'm not sure what flow it prefers, but I would guess moderate flow based on the flow around other Halophila spp.
Light, temperature, and seasonal impacts:
Flow for other seagrasses:
agris.fao.org
Halophila decipiens seems to prefer relatively low light (based on the info I've found, I would guess it would like right around 100-130+ PAR, I wouldn't go lower than 100 or higher than 150, but it may be able to tolerate higher levels; if you wanted to simulate the seasonal cycles, then you would drop the light to ~50 PAR to simulate wet seasons and raise it back to 100+ for dry seasons) and tropical temps (~70F for wet season and ~80F for dry season), and at least some populations are known to flower and seed year-round. So, as long as the conditions are right (i.e. as long as the plant has enough light and a high enough temp), it may not need seasonal replication to seed/thrive in a tank.
I'm not sure what flow it prefers, but I would guess moderate flow based on the flow around other Halophila spp.
Light, temperature, and seasonal impacts:
Flow for other seagrasses:
Water flow and sediment in Enhalus acoroides and other seagrass beds in the Andaman Sea, off Khao Bae Na, Thailand
AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION
agris.fao.org
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