Riccia fluitans (Riccia)
Riccia fluitans (Crystalwort)
An awesome and super versatile floating liverwort, Riccia grows in pillowy clumps at the surface or the water in even the most basic aquarium setups and is a great plant for cleaning your water while providing shelter to fry and baby shrimp. Riccia also can also be used for a completely different effect in high tech tanks with CO2 injection and at least medium lighting where it can be tied to the surface of rocks and substrate for an absolutely stunning shag rug effect where it can glisten with bubbles from every frond.
Riccia is a a great addition to any tank. It's a beautiful floating plant that can also be used as one of hte most impressive displays in a high tech tank. If you've never tried this plant betore, definitely give it a shot. It's specatcularly charming in any aquarium and its dazzling performance under water makes it one of the most essential plants if you have CO2 and, in my opinion, one of the most compelling reasons to get a CO2 injection system if you've been considering it...
QUICK NOTES:
Difficulty: Easy
Type: Floating, cushing forming plant or submerged carpeting epiphyte
Size: 3cm maximum, usually smaller
Position and Usage: Floating plant or moss-like covering
Growth rate: Fast
Lighting: 3/5 - 5/5
Water Conditions: 20 - 28°C
CO2: Not required, recommended for submerged growth
Propagation: New plants bud out from the mother plant
Special Requirements: Floating - none - water and light. Submerged - adequate light and CO2 fertilization
Misc Notes: Makes an easy growing floating plant that is excellent for spawing fish or shrimp. Can be used tied to rocks, driftwood or substrate in high tech tanks for a soft, pearling moss-like effect.
Emersed: Yes
Description
Riccia fluitans (Crystalwort) is one of the most unique, interesting and moldable aquarium plants in the hobby. Longs used as an attractive floating plant with it's delicate branching "thalli" that look kind of like cartoon antibodies, it grows into an interconnected cushion on the surface of your auquarium. For that reason, it can be more attractive and less messy than other small floating plants because it more or less sticks together rather than getting out of control if you take the time to trim it occasionally.
Riccia is extremely undemanding as most floating plants are any can be grown by anyone. It tolerates a wide range of temperatures and can coexist with virtually any fish, including goldfish. Water chemistry is not important and if grown floating, neither is lighting.
The puffy cusions at the surface are a perfect place spot for labyrinth fish like Gouramies and Bettas to build their bubble nests and lay their eggs. It's also a great place for small fry to hide and feed off the small animals that live in side the riccia mats. For anyone with a Betta, Riccia is a must have plant since it provides envrionmental stimulation for your fish and cleans its water - all the while looking great doing so.
Riccia is a liverwort like subwassterang and does not naturally grow roots. It can however be submerged by tying it down or wrapping it under a mesh where it turns into the most beautiful display of photosynthetic choreography. Initially popularized by the work of legendary aquascaper Takashi Amano, Riccia was an integral part of some of his most impressive and influential signiture pieces where it almost single handed changed the entire aquarium industry and introduced an entire new aesthetic to the aquascaping community worldwide. No other plant, with the possible exception of Glosso, was more important in the now, wildly popular "Nature aquarium" style which places emphasis and simplicity, carpet plants and hardscape covered in greenery in contrast to the classic Dutch style that aims to display the beauty of many species of aquarium plants grown in large, tall clusters usually without rocks or driftwood.
When you grow this plant submerged, the origin of it's common name, crystalwort, becomes immediately evident. Riccia covers whatever surface it's attached to with a texutre that looks almost like a shag carpet adorned with countless glittering bubbles of pure oxygen. It's as close to paradise and any aquarium gets and is a sight to behold! If you have a CO2 system but have never grown this plant, get some, tie it do a rock or driftwood with a hair net and you will not be disappointed!
