Riccia in the aquarium: benefit or harm

Many people saw in the aquariums bright green lumps of plants of various sizes. This is riccia. Often this alga is called water moss. Riccia in the aquarium is used for decorative purposes, and also as a shelter for fish. It is popular with aquarists because it is multifunctional and unpretentious. But, like all vegetation, it will require special care.

Riccia in the aquarium

The photo of this plant shows that it is very original. These floating lumps of moss fell in love with many aquarists. Riccia is a small plate, interwoven with each other. This plant has neither leaves nor roots. Richia in the aquarium looks like an island of moss of bright green color. They can swim at the surface or they can be fixed on the bottom. This alga grows quickly and in a short time can decorate any aquarium.

Riccia never grows to the object to which it is attached. The newly grown leaves disappear from the parent stem and float to the surface of the water. In order not to make a frequent transplantation of a plant, you sometimes need to refresh his lumps, cutting with scissors or priporoshivaya pebbles. This will prevent ascent.

Useful properties of Riccia

Every owner has his own opinion about this seaweed. Some believe that this moss only clogs the aquarium, while others, on the contrary, consider this plant to be very useful for water. To understand whether this is so, let's see what properties this seaweed possesses:

• Riccia in the aquarium actively saturates the water with oxygen;
• Participates in the exchange of mineral and organic substances;
• Very well helps fishes who do not like intense lighting, creating a shadow for them;
• Provides a place for spawning fish;
• Good shelter for fry;
• In mosses, simple ciliates are very good, and this is a fine food for small fishes;
• Riccia likes to regale ampullaria and turtles;
• Also this plant provides an opportunity to embody various designer fantasies of an aquarist.

Riccia in the aquarium: content

This alga does not require special care. The plant is unpretentious and tenacious. From a small piece a new thallus can develop. The plant can live both at a temperature of +15 and at a temperature of +30 degrees Celsius, but the most suitable temperature regime is 22-28 degrees. At low temperatures, riccia begins to turn into spores to wait out the cold. It first turns brown, and its size becomes less and less until the plant and does not disappear. But when the temperature regime becomes favorable for the moss, it will appear again, it will begin to germinate out of the spores that were created when it wilted.

Riccia itself is photophilic, but incandescent lamps are not suitable for it, as it will overheat the water, which will lead to loss of the plant. In addition, this moss does not like a large number of dissolved particles, so weekly it is necessary to replace up to 20% of aquarium water.

Top dressing of a plant

Riccia in the aquarium does not require additional mineral fertilizing, unlike other plants. She receives the products of life from the fishes, which form organic soil for fertilizing. If the water is too saturated with impurities of organic matter and lime, a plaque is put on the stems of moss, which will interfere with the process of photosynthesis, preventing the light from penetrating. If the fishes need quarantine, there is a need to add salt or medicine, then it is better to temporarily transfer the fish to another aquarium, then nothing will happen to riccia. After all, she does not tolerate the presence of salts in the water.

How to grow this plant?

Riccia multiplies from tiny particles, adhering to the feet of floating individuals, which carry the plant from the reservoir into the body of water. It has the property of rapid growth in standing or leisurely running waters. Riccia in the aquarium reproduces by dividing the thallus. It is necessary to separate a small piece from the mother's bush. It can be transplanted to another aquarium, where it will grow in a few weeks.

Prevent the good growth of the bush can fish that love grass, or open mechanical influence. If thallus is disturbed, it will fall into small pieces that are difficult to collect back. Moss richchia in the aquarium is rapidly expanding, covering the entire surface of the water. Because of this, it is necessary to periodically remove part of the plant.

We decorate the aquarium with riccia

With the help of this plant you can realize the most daring design solutions. Riccia can not only be on the surface of the water, it can be lowered to the bottom of the aquarium. But for this you will need to think of something to keep it there. How to fix riccia in the aquarium?

• In order to make a beautiful carpet, it is necessary to lower the seaweed to the bottom with a support, for example, pebbles, driftwood or soil. Riccia at the bottom of the aquarium will create the impression, as if it is strewn with small pearls. And will give this kind of plant a thousand small bubbles that will appear on it.
• In addition, fix the moss can be a mesh, designed specifically for the aquarium, or a conventional fishing line. You can also make a mesh from the bast: just remove the rope that ties the loofah into a circle. The branches of the plant are stretched into the cells, such a carpet is put on the bottom of the aquarium and pressed against the perimeter by pebbles.

• If the idea is that the riccia was fastened vertically or laid on a snag, then it can also be fished. To worry about the appearance is not necessary. The plant grows rapidly, and soon the line will not be visible.
• You can also decorate the stone with a moss, placing the riccia on its surface and crushing it with a mesh. The mesh is reinforced with the same stone.
• Very beautiful is the half of the ceramic pot, decorated with riccia. The shard is stacked to the bottom, this will serve as a shelter for the fish, and on top is decorated with a net with a plant.

Can Ricci bring harm?

Sometimes this alga grows so much that it prevents light and oxygen from entering the aquarium. This can interfere with the growth of other plants. And lowered to the bottom of riccia requires additional care: it must be periodically cut, watch that it does not float to the surface. In addition, you need a very saturated lighting and plant nutrition with carbon dioxide. Therefore, to plant or not this plant, each aquarist decides for himself.

Riccia in the aquarium makes the interior more spectacular. You can use as one stone, dressed Riccia, and a whole arsenal, placing them on different levels. Having united in one whole some time after moss was immersed in an aquarium, riccia gives the interior a finished look. If you create good conditions for water moss, the originality of the aquarium will be astounding.