Maidens hair--some info please?

[sicshift]

I'm thinking of adding some maidens hair. My tank is very new and I currenly only have some ricordea in there. Water parameters are good. I like the contrast that maidens hair gives to corals.

Anything I should know about it? Is it a hardy plant? Does it become a nuisance or anything?

not much came up in my search threads.

 

[GDW]

Greetings sicshift & Happy New Year !

Maiden's Hair: Chlorodesmis fastigiata (aka "Turtle Weed").

This alga likes bright light, vigorous curent, and iron supplementation. It is typically very hardy, once established. Be careful in your specimen selection. Many of the specimens that I see did not ship well, i.e., a significant number of individual strands have lost their green pigments and have become translucent/white. Those specimens tend to die off rapidly.

In my systems, the strands have a tendency to break off, reattach, and begin new algal colonies. Some might consider this a nuisance. It can also sporulate, causing MANY new algal colonies. This can definitely be a nuisance (... a very cool nuisance, depending upon where it reattaches).

A word of caution: You might wish to consider holding off on introducing this species until after the "algae succession cycle" that normally occurs in newly established tanks. I would seriously ponder and hesitate before adding algal nutrients to a tank in the middle of the "succession wars." JMO.

HTH,
GDW

 

[sicshift]

Thanks for the info. I'll take your advice and hold off for a bit and then look into it in about a month or so.

 

[NicoleC]

Just to add one thing -- most herbivores won't touch maiden's hair. This is good when you are trying to get it to grow initially, but could be bad down the road. Expect to have to weed by hand.

 

[sicshift]

anyone have some pics of it in their tanks?