Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Just letting anyone looking for seagrasses know that reefcleaners.org has some oargrass, Halophila decipiens, in stock. It is a low-lying seagrass that is much, much less demanding than other seagrass species and won't shade your corals, unless they are in the sand. I'm planning to put it in a large, open sandy portion of my tank. It's also great for seahorses and is another way to reduce some nutrients in the tank (as well as acting as a sink to soak up nutrients in the sand). It is also reasonably common to see coral formations or rocks with coral growth surrounded by seagrass, so no worries on something looking unnatural.

wonder if it would help pod population as well ???

Well, it is a habitat for a whole lot of things. It diffuses flow around the growing area pretty substantially, so it will act as a shelter for copepods. It also grows lots of epiphytic algal species, which are in turn consumed by a whole lot of things, including copepods and amphipods. Unless there is some reason for purposely not incorporating it, it seems like a win-win situation to me. I had checked reefcleaners a good long while ago and I didn't see this species offered. This is actually the first time I've seen it there, which is why I jumped on it. I'll be planting it when it gets here Friday. I ordered 30 stems, so I may or may not have any left over. If I do, the few I'll likely have I'll offer them here, first, but I'm going to try to use as many possible,if not all of them. It's just going to depend on how much room I have (I have a good bit--a bit over 1/3, almost half of the tank is sand) and how densely I end up planting them. If they take off, I'll also offer any later prunings here, as well. They may not do well, though, so it is just going to depend on what happens.

I don't think it would make it in my tank with a Foxface and Yellow Tang.

sound cool keep me up to date on how it goes for you.personally i am intrested in it for i copepod spawning area my sump and macro in sump seems to be working well. jus want to make sure my mandarin has plenty to eat lol.

Crustman wrote:I don't think it would make it in my tank with a Foxface and Yellow Tang.

Tangs and rabbitfish love it, Tom. It wouldn't last long.

In case you might be wondering how it would look in a tank with corals, here's a picture of one of Eric Borneman's tanks that has it. The species is actually H. ovalis, which has the exact same shape, but the leaves are larger than H. decipiens on average:

Well, I got the oargrass in and it is microscopic and in rough shape, which I expected. John at ReefCleaners can only collect what washed ashore, so it isn't going to be perfect to start with. I had to shut off every single pump, minus my large Tunze, to keep it from flying away. I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep it alive, especially with the rough shape it's in. Only time will tell. If I managed to get it to live, I'll definitely spread it around. I'll get some pics up soon.

Forgot about this. Here's a pic, as promised:



The leaves are thin, partly because winter growth is stunted and small where it is collected and partly because I also got a handful of sprigs of Syringodium filiforme (manatee grass). Those leaves will die off and, if it lives... it will sprout the usual broad, oar-like leaves. Only time will tell.

Andrew have you had any luck with your Oar Grass? I got some in from RC a few weeks back, and it's not doing so hot...

Most of mine became uprooted by my sandsifting animals, but some is definitely left. Mine hasn't exactly exploded with growth, either. I may have 1-2 extra sprouts out of the ones that are left. That's it during that whole amount of time.

Any new updates on the grass?

I actually broke this tank down and have since moved to a small 25g cube. The grass has been doing spectacularly in this smaller tank. I'll likely have updates on it tomorrow--I'll post them on this thread and on the newer one.

Edit: here's a link to the updated thread, as well as some pics I took today: http://www.mbrk.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&p=42410#p42410