Bacopa caroliniana is a super easy stem plant that does very well in the Fireplace Aquarium. Grown by Tropica and purchased from Pro Shrimp in May 2023, the bacopa transitioned smoothly to submersed growth.
Attractive branching stem plant
I like the bacopa vs. for example ludwigia because the bacopa fills out laterally rather than just growing stems straight up. The bacopa is an attractive bright green although it does bronze up a little when the lighting is intense such as at the top of the tank. The claim is that “its slow growth rate makes it one of the few stem plants that do not need much attention” but at least for me it grows pretty vigorously – around 10 cm per month. Fortunately maintenance is straightforward: uproot the entire plant and cut off and replant just the tops. The tops take root readily. With a number of bacopa stems you can do a rotating trim and replant so as to always have a variety of heights. The bacopa does seem to enjoy bright light. When initially planted it got shaded/crowded by some vallis and seems to have benefited from being given some bright space of its own.
Oct 22
Dec 3
Jan 1
Bacopa bushes out as it grows up
The gallery above illustrates how the bacopa fills out as it grows. As an added bonus, in the left foreground of the photos you can see Cryptocoryne nurii transitioning from the newly planted emersed growth form to the mature mottled rose/green submersed form.
Easy maintenance (for a stem plant)
The “problem” with stem plants generally is they grow too fast and too big and require a lot of frequent hands-on maintenance. That’s also their big plus of course – they fill a lot of space attractively and quickly. It’s hard to find a good middle ground here, particularly in a CO2-injected set-up like the Fireplace Aquarium that promotes rapid vigorous growth. For some people the hassle of regular maintenance of stem plants is a reason to abandon stem plants altogether in favour of for example rosette style plants and crypts. Bacopa grows at a quite more measured rate than ludwigia, which means you don’t have to trim it nearly as often.
Neat appearance with fewer ‘aerial roots’
My other “complaint” with ludwigia (and also with lobelia actually) is that as the stems get long they develop a lot of ‘adventitious roots’ – roots arising from the stems rather than from the base of the plant (in a plant growing above the water these would be called ‘aerial roots’. To me at least these white roots coming off the top portion of the stems look “unattractive” against the background of the nicely saturated colour from the leaves and stems. Bacopa for whatever reason doesn’t really have this problem as others have also noticed. To be sure it is possible to trim off adventitious roots, but that means even more maintenance, so another win for bacopa!