Freshwater Aquarium Plants Guide How To Carpeting Aquarium With Hemianthus Callitrichoides Aka Cuba – Hemianthus Callitrichoides also called dwarf baby tears is one of the most popular carpet plants in the world. Besides, this plant commonly called ‘Cuba,’ named after it’s country of origin. In 2004, Tropica imported this plant from Cuba, and it becomes the way for them to be great foreground plants.
Hemianthus callitrichoides first founded by Holger Windeløv around 90 km to the East of Havana in a rocky river during the dry season. The dense population of the plant look as cushion rooting in the gravelly substrate was growing around 50 cm above the waterline. And he assumes that during the rainy season almost all of the population is submerged in water up to 1 meter deep with a strong flow. They have a tiny leaf, the size only three to four millimeters that why this plant become the smallest aquarium plant in the world and it’s to become the most popular aquascaping plants.
Majority In the trade or aquaria market sells “Cuba” in the emersed form, and it has roundish leaves. Sometimes, you can see the tiny white flowers in the axils. In the submersed form it looks almost same as an emersed form with cushion-like growth or low carpet. Cuba has smaller leaves and a bit narrower. They have less or more upright but very short rod with opposite leaves (2 leaves/node) and at the same time, creeping as well as overcharging shoots. On both the latter, the leaves often found to form whorls of 3/node.
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When cultivation in small patches a few centimeters separated in the bright foreground of an aquarium, Cuba grows to shape a dense, bright green carpet within 3 – 4 weeks. Planting Dwarf Baby Tears in the elevated area will make it forms decorative overhanging shots.
Freshwater Aquarium Plants Guide How To Carpeting Aquarium With Hemianthus Callitrichoides Aka Cuba
[sociallocker][/sociallocker]The light intensity effect to a compacted growth of Dwarf Baby Tears. The optimum temperature is around 25 °C, although it also tolerates temperatures in the range between 20 and 28 °C. It’s not always needed to fertilize Cuba with CO2. Nevertheless, It will grow healthier with it. It’s vulnerable to the shortage of iron whose symptoms are yellow shoot tips, where it should be supplied with enough macronutrients, especially nitrate.
Freshwater Aquarium Plants Guide How To Carpeting Aquarium With Hemianthus Callitrichoides Aka Cuba
Cuba is hardiness plants, and they have an excellent appearance that why Cuba is highly attractive and recommendable aquarium foreground plants. They not only perfect for carpet such structures in the foreground but for layouts with many rocks as a pretty accent in the crevices too, which them reminds the viewers of alpine cushion plants. Cuba can even be sticked to driftwood, where they shape large bright green cushions with overcharging shoots. The Dwarf Baby Tears can propagate above the waterline too, where frequently shape more compact cushions than in the underwater. In the open aquarium, it may be attached along the waterline of stones or driftwood attaching out of the water that makes Cuba its perfect choice carpet plant for creating traditional iwagumi style. For information on iwagumi’s read out the article “How to Create Aquascape with Iwagumi Style.”
Freshwater Aquarium Plants Guide How To Carpeting Aquarium With Hemianthus Callitrichoides Aka Cuba
Tips to Start Planting Hemianthus Callitrichoides Aka Cuba in Tank
Cuba is often considered hard to grow. Many factors make it difficult to plant. One of them is wrong choice material for the substrates. Cuba needs materials substrate with smaller grain size, which makes it easier to cultivate the portions into and also allows the roots to grow fastly and easily within the substrate and all criteria of it owned by ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia. Besides it, this soil is also helpful where a sense of scale is desired, the smaller granules add to nature effect, and create a more aesthetically pleasing look, especially if it’s used in the foreground.
Freshwater Aquarium Plants Guide: How To Carpeting Aquarium With Hemianthus Callitrichoides Aka Cuba
The Dwarf Baby Tears will good growing in medium light to high light. You must choose a good quality LED lamp as AQQEF LED Aquarium Light and enough CO2 injection, for CO2 Injection kit you can buy on Amazon, click here. and to support the healthy growth it needs liquid fertilizers, with complete nutrients such as Seachem Flourish Excel are perfectly balanced in every drop, such as npk, nitrogen, flourish phosphorus or flourish potassium as needed.
Watch this video setting up nano aquarium with Hemianthus Callitrichoides “Cuba” plants:
Plant Profile:
- Major group: Angiosperms
- Order: Lamiales
- Family: Linderniaceae
- Genus: Hemianthus
- Species Name: Hemiánthus callitrichoídes Griseb.
- Common Name: Dwarf baby tears, Cuba, HC Cuba
- Origin: Cuba, Puerto Rico
- Difficulty: Medium
- Grow Rate: Medium
- Lighting Needs: high
- Temperature Tolerance: 18 – 28° C
- Optimum Temperature: 24 – 26° C
- Carbonate Hardness: 0 – 18° dKH
- pH: 5 – 7
- Carbon Dioxide: 20 – 40 mg/l
- Nitrate: 10 – 50 mg/l
- Phosphate: 0.1 – 3 mg/l
- Potassium: 5 – 30 mg/l
- Iron: 0.01 – 0.5 mg/l
- Cultivation: cutting off daughter plants
- Can grow emersed?: Yes
- Suitable for Beginners: No
- Availability: Available commercially
- Potioning In Aquarium: Foreground
