Semi Aquatic Plants for Shallow Water

[kwarzym]

So, I have only ever had one adventurous fire belly newt that every actually liked water, I have always had juveniles that stuck to the land. Long story short, my main tank has been setup with a acrylic divider making the tank 1/4 land and 3/4 water, and I have had a few terrestrial plants that seem to survive, but not thrive on the land. I have been looking for any plants that can grow with their roots perpetually submerged (as the divider leaks, so the water level is right beneath the surface of the land, if not a little over in places after some water changes) or partially submerged (about an inch or two of water).

Java moss works ok on the rim of the land, but it doesn't like to spread further up. I have some Devil's ivy, and while it has lived for years in my tank, it has never spread either.

Do I need better substrate in the land area? I am using gravel there currently - I was afraid to use any other substrate and pollute the water.

 

[Kaysie]

Creeping jenny is one you could try. I don't know exactly how your land area is set up, but you could try sinking a sandwich container or something of the sort with dirt in it and try growing plants in that. It would keep the substrate fairly dry.

 

[albear28]

Sounds likes it's a cool tank, can you post a few pictures?

 

[Wildebeestking]

I had an issue similar to this when I had a divider in my tank. Rocks with dirt on top of them sometimes would remain relatively dry as long as the dirt doesn't touch the main mass of wet dirt. I mostly used grass a and random weeds in the tank, experimenting to try and find something that could survive in the muck. Reeds from a nearby pond worked really well. Though, they quickly outgrew my tank.

 

[hitower1575]

Mondo Grass works well for me no matter if fully/semi-aquatic, or just plain terrestrial.

 

[kwarzym]

My divider leaks, but I always thought that was a good thing, as it allows the plants on the land side to get water and nutrients from the water side, as well as supporting a large bacteria population in the land side that helps break down waste.

I have always wanted to grow a "water's edge" assortment of plants like you could find on a streambank. Apparently, growing aquatic plants emersed somewhat fits my goal, looking at wabi-kusas (a Japanese form of emersed aquatic plant art) is kind of what I am looking for to plant on my land side of the tank, I am just not sure what to get to attempt it, such as what soil to use, as a lot of common soils float. I was thinking of just planting a some dwarf hair grass, riccia, Lilaeopsis, and some other moss/grass and letting them go nuts.