Staurogyne repens
Staurogyne repens in vitro plantlets
Staurogyne repens is an ‘easy to grow’ and popular aquatic plant. I have been resisting trying this plant for some reason… too easy, too popular? Anyway, it has a low growth habit but isn’t a carpeting plant, so seems like it might be right for the Shrimphaus. I usually prefer potted plants, but at the time could only find S. repens as an in vitro pot, so picked one up from Aquarium Gardens, as grown by Tropica.
I don’t know whether Tropica has changed around their in vitro system or not – usually the plants are embedded in a type of water-soluble agar gel – but these were in nutrient juice without all the jellied bits to be rinsed off / picked out which made for a better experience. The plantlets easily separated out into many healthy individuals with good roots. Sometimes I find these tissue culture plants grow in a manner where they seem confused between “up” and “down”, but not this pot.
Planting was straightforward. I put in a patch before the slate divider that tries to hold the aquasoil back from the deepest part of the tank where the pump inlet (and the heater) are located. A second patch went into the back right, around the long-struggling Echinodorus chrileni, to beef up that back corner bare patch a bit. As usual, I used a short set of ADA pinsettes to get the plantlets into place. For some reason the S. repens plantlets seemed easier to place in the aquasoil than some other plants I have tried.
S. repens on left
S. repens – mid left, back right
S. repens back right
We’ll see how this new plant gets on. So far neither the neocaridina or caridina shrimp have particularly noticed the new addition.
S. repens 10 month update – not so good
Well… “easy” in some circumstances perhaps, but not in the Shrimphaus. The S. repens did grow a bit, but then mostly stopped and became colonised by algae. There wasn’t much evidence it was ever able to establish any kind of root system and periodically it would come loose and float up. I think this just won’t work in my setup. After close to a year I removed the Staurogyne from the Shrimphaus.
Here is a photo of the S. repens struggling after nearly 8 months immediately behind newly planted Saggitaria subulata.