Riccia Fluitans, commonly known as Crystalwort, can be an absolutely gorgeous plant. I first came across it when purchasing red cherry shrimp and water sprite from a craigslist advert. The guy who posted the advert was a local fish enthusiast with many freshwater plants for sale as well. We wound up chatting for a while about plants, shrimp, fish, tips and tricks. He recommended I try giving Crystalwort a chance, saying it could be floated or tied down. I left with a decent golf ball sized portion in addition to everything else I planned to get.

Here was the tank before I added any of the extra plants. The first plant species added was HC Cuba, which did quite well given the lighting, Flourish Excel, and Ferts I began adding. The HC began to quickly spread, and the sword and crypts I later added also took off. Yet, the tank was still rather bare, prompting me to look into some taller plants. This was were I thought water sprite might be a nice addition as it can grow quite tall very quickly, giving the bettas more hiding spots while utilizing more of the tank space.

First days of the 15 gallon high

Close up the HC Cuba growing

I tied the riccia down to rocks with green nylon thread (worked okay, but fishing line works much better!), and placed the rocks throughout the tank where desired. Soon, the riccia had begun to grow in beautifully.

The main planted floor – Riccia and HC Cuba clearly separated

Riccia circled in blue and HC Cuba in yellow

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Here are some huge mistakes I made in “maintaining” this tank, which led to crystalwort becoming a huge issue rather than a beautiful plant.

1. Turn off filters and powerheads while trimming crystalwort! This stops the trimmings from becoming caught in other plants and eventually growing.
2. Remove small trimmings immediately. Allowing the riccia trimmings to float ended in disaster. I had hoped they would grow more as floaters, then could be turned into more tied down sections. Instead, the trimming continuously got caught in other plants, like my HC.
3. Pick out stray pieces frequently. Regular checking of the HC Cuba to remove any bits of crystalwort would have saved my HC carpet. Instead, I let the riccia continue growing. Crystalwort can easily choke out HC in good growing conditions, which is what began to happen in my tank.

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Here is my tank once the riccia really began to take hold. By this point, the HC Cuba had begun to suffer terribly, being starved out and losing light.

Poor HC Cuba

Potato quality FTS

HC Cuba browning an unhealthy

HC Decay encouraged algae

At least the shrimp loved it!

Once it became clear that I needed to intervene, there didn’t seem to be many options to separate the crystalwort from the HC Cuba. I had to pull out the entire mat, separating pieces by hand. The carpet was replanted and the riccia moved to another tank. I had two successive tragedies with faulty CO2 gas regulators and overdosing fertilizers that ultimately destroyed my HC Carpet in this tank. I’m planning new foreground plants, and perhaps giving HC Cuba another try soon though!