Plant Showdown! Water Sprite vs Wisteria
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- čas přidán 8. 12. 2017
- Hello Everyone,
Water sprite and Wisteria are often confused so I wanted to do a video comparing the two. If you have a preference for one or both let us know in the comments.
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Check out this aquatic plant care guide for more information: czcams.com/video/fU8xwLNzPmc/video.html
In the video below we talk about some easy-to-grow plants for beginners:
czcams.com/video/1QW_sBZmRvQ/video.html
Looking for a good liquid fertilizer? Take a look at this review of Easy Green:
czcams.com/video/wU8lc7Sxw9Q/video.html
If you want to see more behind the scenes stuff, exclusive videos and support the channel consider becoming a member! czcams.com/channels/YVN7EN0ALL6CE4U7NpMUTA.htmljoin
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I have both in my 20 gallon tank, I have them both floating and planted. Water sprite tendsto grow faster than wisteria. Over-all I like water sprite more than wisteria. Water sprite's leaf system looks like cobwebs, and it's assymetrical growth of leaves looks like artwork. It looks cleaner as well when floating, wisteria is a hot mess when you're floating it and diatoms start to gather on the leaves.
Floating the plant until the roots grow is a great tip! Thank you! Excellent presentation and explanation.
I love floating watersprite. My dwarf pencilfish and green neons absolutely love it for cover and at night they literally swim into it and hang out in it. Very nice plant for floating. Looks great and fish love it
I’ve come across a few of your videos lately when searching for information about the fish keeping hobby and find them very informative so I subbed. Looking forward to watching your older videos. Keep up the great content. It is really appreciated
Glad you found it useful, thanks for watching!
Brilliant video. Appreciate your useful helpful information. Please keep it coming! Your great!
Thank you Darren. Appreciate you watching!
I liked watching the little bugs swimming around. I want to try wisteria in my pond.
My Petco got some wisteria last month. Pretty unusual for them. Made sure I got both of them. They are very awesome so far. Didn't know about floating them or cuttings for roots to grow out before planting. Mine are doing five with no die back but sure haven't taken off like yours. Shrimp sure seem to like them as much as I do! Thanks for the education.
Great video. I have the same problem with water Sprite too.
I accidentally got water wisteria purchased as water sprite. It never looked like all the pics of sprite. In my water in fl it's a monster. I love it! It has 3 different leaf shapes with younger plant leave being obviously wider. I'm really happy about the mistake. I plant it in water gardens outside and it loves to look like a beautiful fern with narrower leaves when it gets above the water. It IS very fragile in outdoor conditions but every single part of the leaf will grow. It's been decimated by raccoons and lived on by its pieces. I use it in bio bowls for my bettas with a snail population and the water stays clear and healthy. I highly recommend this plant to anyone that wants an easy going plant that can fill tanks fast. If you want a plant carpet in a tank this keeper is up for the job. You DO have to respect its need for light like any plant.
Know it's been a couple weeks, but new to most plants, and you seem knowledgeable: wisteria, will it root in sand and 'eat' from the water column? I've always liked the look of the plant, just didn't know the name. Sorry to bother you! 🙏
I kept it down by putting slips through a hole in a piece of plastic, when the roots came out I put the plastic on the bottom under the gravel and put a couple rocks one on each side. And they would stay in place. But now none of the pet stores carry any of these plants as of yet Cabomba, Sprite or Wisteria. Thank you for all you help.
I have a fine gravel and have not had problems. I have yoyo loaches as well as Danios and glow lite tetras
I learned something today! TY for the info!
Awesome! Thank you
I just got some a few weeks ago & some of the the leaves fell off & I just put the them in a
plastic strainer & let them float in the water & I'm seeing NEW root growth just from the leaves no stems.
Glad you explained the difference. I ordered water wisteria and it looks like I’ve got water sprite and shoot of wisteria. Both beautiful plants so I guess it doesn’t matter.
Thanks for your video!
Two of my favourite plants. Both Fantastic, I keep them both. :)
Thanks for this great video. I know now I have water wisteria in my 29g tank.
Definitely Wisteria for me.
Love how it looks and I think it would fit well in my 20g Hex tank which is a 24'' tall tank.
I kept my weighted band that came wrapped around my water sprite and planted that whole bundle. Never floated or derooted itself.
I was able to keep water sprite in the substrate but it will grow roots and tear off from the mother plant constantly. The wisteria is beautiful. Under low light the leaves are wide but as it grows and reaches the light the leaves spread like fingers.
I love my watersprite, but just like yours, i find it has a way of derooting itself from the substrate.
Very interesting, great video as always.
Thank you!
Well I have a water sprite/ wisteria tank and while setting it up I had a pretty easy time planting them amongst themselves in some really fine sand. But out of all of the water sprite I planted one clipping that I kept trying to plant would never stay down so now it just floats along with my azolla
I just got me some today & put them in gravel in a 1/2 cut soda bottle
Thanks for this video. I got some "wisteria" plant trimmings from a person and have been thinking it is not wisteria. Now for sure I know it is water sprite.
great video. these are often confused.
Nice to know, my very first plant was water sprite, i just bought a couple of tiny pots then its just have massive growth, and I literally have this in all my aquarium. And yeah they hard to plant on the bottom of the tanks
It's a fun plant because it grows so fast!
exactly the vid i was looking for!
Glad it helped!
As someone else mentioned, I kept my wisteria banded together from the fish store and used my tweezers to stick it down. It has remained in place, but like you said, it is growing sideways in my 20 long. I plan to clip and replant though. Love your channel.
where I buy they often have the roots banded with a rubber band and a piece of sponge. I have not noticed any impact to the fish and it does help keeping it down.
I planted my water sprite before stocking the tank, so it had a few weeks to establish roots. It’s a root mass with about 5 stems and has stayed put really well. I haven’t trimmed and replanted any other clones though so no info on that.
Wisteria is the only plant I've been able to grow, and it grows fast, beautiful, and easily! I LOVE IT!!!!!!! I started with just ONE and it is in 2 of my 3 tanks now. I can't wait to start it in my 125!!!!!!!!
That will be fun!
Fantastic! Thank you so much!!
Thank you!
I know what I have and it's a great plan it's growing out new runners and roots now:)
Very cool!
I love the Wisteria and plan on doing some propagating cuttings today. However I have had no luck at all with Water Sprite. I probably plant it too deep and it becomes an algae magnate. while the Wisteria in the same tank grows like crazy. I also like Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus but it requires more trimming in my water.
{my 55gal} About the sprite... same with my horn wart, skinny and bristled and I cannot keep bunches in the substrate, every morning I would find it floating (maybe my 7” picostmamous)... also the needle leaves are all through my gravel, I did find when it would grow a single branch straight up, I would snip and put the single strand buried and let grow straight up, works good and not a huge bunch of it... think on my videos I have one of my tank (moved the logs around some, looks cool!)
Keeping this plant on the substrate is so difficult. Everey week, I need to replant it to the point I left it hanging an inch from the substrate. The roots eventually reached the substrate like hairs. It grew fast since then. Very nice plant
Nice!
I put mine in the substrate and its stayed very well even right under the filter so it's in the current also
Came back to watch this video because most of my water sprite is dying again(with small leave pieces falling off everyday). I recently lowered lights and liquid fertilizer to reduce algae. They also uprooted while I was cleaning the sand. I've only had them for a few months but their Stems are constantly dying. I might need to increase nutrients, and replant the parts with roots.
My water wisteria has fast growing ugly roots coming out in the water column. It definitely more vibrant and stays rooted easier like you said.
Also forgot to say that I'm just letting the plants float for now to see what happens. And thanks for the video - really good !!
That’s a good idea. Once they get going they’re going to want a decent amount of ferts unless the tank is heavily stocked.
My wisteria, I noticed it growing after planting it three days. It’s absolutely gorgeous along side my Rotala macrandra. It’s in a 20 gallon and has had to be trimmed but I don’t mind that.
That's cool!
Hi Jason if you let the water sprite float on the water surface you can get more robust plants and more amazing plants witch means it doesn`t need to be planted in the gravel. I just let it float on the surface under the light and it just exploade of growing new plants. I would recomand it more as a floating plant it grows more on surface and get more thick and it loves to grow oute of the water if take surface cover of try it Jason it´s very rewarding because it´s eats up nitrat amonia from the fish in the aquarium tank. Oh and by the way if you let bright light on the plant it will go crazy on the water surface it will grow over the surface and under the water surface. What I mean is it´s rewarding if you just let it float on the surface because the plants will get longer roots witch will be good for fish fry and many killifish spawns in the roots. I hope you enjoy a bit of my exparience.
I´m a new follower on your chanel and like what you do! My name is Mikael and I´m from Sweden
Keep the good stuff up and thumbs up for a great video love your fishroom it´s looking really great by the way!!
Have a great Week and take care
Thank you for the input!
I find it grows better if u treat it like Java fern an needs alot of humidity if your gonna grow it as a floater an it tends to be real fragile like guppy grass meaning it breaks easy I had good results attaching it wisteria is a way better stem plant to use in substrate I tend to cut it to stubs like 1 cm an it will come back lol one downside would be huggggggggeeeee root system an yeah wisteria is far harder in my tank it grows more compact than yours
@@PrimeTimeAquatics I have got some ceratopteris Cornuta.. They never grips on to the substrate. Same like the wisteria .. but i have seen them growing among other terrestrial plants ..
We haven't had any issues with water sprite staying planted. I trim the roots shorter before planting, We have this in a community tank with small fish(tetra, white cloud, etc. and 1 pearl guarami.) so that may help with the plants not being disturbed. However, our mystery snail crawls all over them like a rollercoaster ride :).
I'm sure I'll genuinely like the content of this video, but 20 seconds in and I'm compelled to give this a Like for that shirt!
One of my two rooted water sprites would not stay in the substrate, so I wrapped one of the weights the plant came with loosely around the stems. It worked so far.
That can work. Sometimes the stems will rot where the weight is located.
I love my water westira I use it in every tank and pond I have.
It's slowly winding up in most of my tanks too!
Thanks for this. Though I have kept both species, I really was never sure what I had - the plant being frequently incorrectly identified by stores and hobbyists. All of it tends to be referred to as Water Sprite. Folks tend to take for granted something so easily grown because they never have to search for it or provide special care. I prefer the Water Wisteria for the reasons you cite and I find that the stronger the light, the thicker the leaves.
Small but important topic.
Thank you. I found the same thing when I first started keeping them too!
I was able to plant water sprite in both sand and gravel substrate. Just as long as I let it grow a decent root structure. I tried both plants and did like both. I used them in my guppy fry grow out tanks. The only thing I kind of didn't like is the roots growing out of the stems, looked unsightly. They weren't always in the ideal place to trim and propagate. They do seem to like a bit of GH & KH. Now where I live I can't seem to grow them with GH of 4 & KH of 3. 😢
Both are absolutely outstanding in a low Tech set up
In fact I have to trim the water sprite once a week. No CO 2 and I have Sand substrate with root tabs only.
I simply tie them with driftwood .... as per my exp they dont require soil that much .. if u want to plant them, u may try to tie plant with a rock and place them over soil..
I just purchased the sprite and I'm liking it. I actually like the lighter green/yellowy color. Its a good contrast to my other plants.
Awesome!
Water Wisteria and Crypts are the only plants that have thrived in my low tech 29 gallon. I started off with 3 stems and in 6 months it had spread across the back of my tank. The crypts have spread quite a bit as well.
That's always fun!
Hey it's a Aquarium update long time ago I have 1 water sprite couple of month later I got 12 water sprite and this plant is super fast growing
I’ve had Water Sprite for about a year now and have also had trouble keeping it in the substrate. I have nano fish so I know that they’re not uprooting it.
I have both. I really love sprite
I just got mines from Amazon!😊
I just bought a plant bunch at Petco. It was labeled wisteria and water Sprite. It's leaves look like celery leaves. I planted one stem in the gravel and let the rest float.
Once it settles in the stuff grows pretty fast!
We got a bog plant shipped to us. Not sure which bog plant but we had a hitch hiker plant that started growing. First as thin green branches. Then the branches became thin leaves. Then the leaves became wider. I still haven’t figured out what it is. It grew quickly and took over our small 50 gallon pond. My son removed most of it and my fish suffered(died). I have been nursing it back to a healthy state. It is growing back and other plants are doing great. I threw some bettas in there and they bred. Not many survived. Maybe 5 or 6. But I’m still wondering what the plant is.
In the beginning before the zoom in on the plants, the snail makes it look like there is a creepy sea creature glaring at you !!! Go back and look !!! I couldn't help but comment on that xD !!!
Boulder routes through a ceramic ring La Pine to just where the basement plant starts and put one drop of super glue there it'll grow fine just like that and it won't come back out of out of the substrate because the ring gives it a little bit of weight
Thank you sooo much, I'm new to aquascape and looking for the name of one plant I saw on the video and I want tonhave it, and it's Wisteria!!! Now I can 😴sleep, not sure if anyone experienced something like me, it's so hard to find the name of the plant you only saw in the video, in order to buy it...and they are sometimes has name that even hard to pronounce, not to mention to remember, so I always take screenshot..
Anie Photography hope it works well for you!
Cool video
Great video! But what are your water parameters... specifically pH and hardness? Thank you kindly!
I'm running at 7.8 - 8.0 in my tanks. I haven't checked water hardness with a test kit in a while but my TDS is around 200ppm.
Funny you should mention it. I just replanted all mine AGAIN today
You are not alone! : -)
Your wisteria looks great. How long do you keep your lights on and how often do you fertilize? Thanks
Thank you! We run the lights about nine hours a day split between the morning and evening. Liquid ferts for this plant about once every week or two.
cool snail, what type is it?
I think they need mudd to remain rooted. mine always end up floating. i ended up chopping away 75% of the plant and rooting the more greener parts.
I find it much easier to plant water sprite if their roots are thicker. Planting it without root tends to damage it's skinny stem
I planted my sprite right under the outlet so it stays planted but the flow makes it grow like a bonsi tree
Cool!
The easiest way to tell these 2 plants apart: Water Sprite is a Fern, and all new leaves grow out from the crown and new plantlets are formed on the edges of old leaves. Wysteria is a Stem plant, and new leaves are formed up the stem on new nodes as the plant grows. So many people get them confused!!
Ian Smale water sprite is a water column feeder
Wow cool! Thanks for clarifying! So for a top view a water sprite would be much better yes?
My water wisteria does quite the opposite in my 20g long. It sits right under the light (I'm using a 6500k LED floodlight) and stays very compact and hasn't grown noticeably taller at all in 2 months. My jungle val does the same thing.
I wonder if it has something to do with the strength of the light? It doesn't need to grow as tall to get sufficient light.
That's what I was thinking as well. Regardless, it's still a great plant!
Try some osmocote+ under the roots or some PMDD+PO4 and see what happens.
Higher light doesn't always means higher growth if CO2 or nutrients are too low.
I just float mine right now it has already broke surface of water I dont if that just my experience so yay it gets free co2
This does have to do with the light. Terrestrial plants are like this as well. Higher light sources result in dense growth.
I had water wisteria I bought 3 plants and all died but 1 and the one had 2 babys then died and those 2 babys made me like 50 bug plants and little plants still attached to the plant and lots of little plants I have it floating it breeds better closer to the light
I have water sprite in all of my aquariums and they have never uprooted. I have them in eco complete and I keep them with guppies. My guppies are too tiny obviously to uproot the plant so my guess is your fish are uprooting it. Thanks!
Appreciate you sharing!
I have Water Wisteria and boy is it tough to control it's growth!! I almost trim a kilo of them every fortnight from my 380 liter (~100 US Gal.) tank. Great plant though! Completely outstripped algal problems!
Ya, that stuff grows quick! : -)
Re: plants not staying rooted; I made a small jar (actually a 1 gallon beverage dispenser) and 3/4 full of h2o to put one plant in. Just bought h2o wysteria (not sprite) and roots are very short. Have about 1.75 " substrate (carib sea flora max) in the bottom and the plants will not stay put in the substrate, except for one smaller piece that broke off the main stem. The substrate is so lightweight that i can't imagine the plants staying rooted even when the roots get longer. Should I put in more substrate or mix it with something heavier - and if mixing, what to mix it with?
A good option might be to let it float until the roots get longer? I generally don’t layer my substrate, so I’m not sure what the best option is to put on top.
I had water wisteria in my goldfish tanks before and they were decimated. The water sprite seems to be better off, somehow. Nonetheless, both are great for a natural aquarium
I just saw another video where they talked about Hornwort standing up well to Goldfish. I really want something easy / bulletproof in low lighting. Would be nice to have a couple types of plants, still watching random videos looking for a second. Maybe Java Moss for my loaches to play and hide in idk..
I’m in a scape off and could use some help
I'm not sure how much help I can be with hard-scaping. I just kind of throw stuff in the tanks and if I think it helps the system I'm happy. : -)
Can we tie this two plants on driftwood or on rocks just like jawa moss or Anubis nana will it will grow please answer my question
I've never tried it, but my guess is it might work. My only concern would be if it's too tight you might see stem rot below where you tie it. It's certainly worth a try.
I take a number of stems(that have been floating or trimmed off of tall plants and rubber band them around a skinny rock. Then I drop the rock down somewhere(usually behind or among other plants. The wisteria continues to grow and sends roots down into the substrate around the rock.
Would you recommend these in a cichlid tank? I know cichlids move rooted plants. I’m looking for something easy to put in there and something that floats. I thought of putting pothos in my hob but I saw it’s poisonous to animals and if consumed. I don’t want to take a chance of my toddler or fur babies to get a hold of it. Also at the Gcca do you recommend bringing anything. I know I’m going to bring a bucket, meds, and a portable air aerator Just in case. Are we aloud to bring tote bags to put the stuff we buy?
It depends on the cichlids - most Lake Malawi cichlids will eat them. I would definitely bring a tote/cooler for any bags of fish you buy! : -)
I have yellow labs and I think 2 dragon bloods and 3-4 ob their all around an inch.
I think they will probably eat the plants. haha
Hi! Will water sprite or wisteria be able to grow on african cichlid tank? I was looking into making a refugium in my sump with those plants but the first time i tried it they seem to have melted. Is it because of too much salt? Or having high ph? (My ph 8.0). Thank you in advance 😁
My pH is an 8.2 and both grew well in my water. I tried both of them in a Malawi tank and both were quickly eaten. I haven't found anything that won't be eaten by Malawi African cichlids. :-)
How to setup pleco fish breeding ceves
In my Bristlenose pleco tanks I just throw them in and don't really put too much thought into it. They always seem to find them no matter where they are. I supposed if you have multiple males it would be best to keep the caves on opposite sides of the tank though.
Nice video! I actually prefer Wisteria as well. I've had the same problems with Water Sprite, with regard to rooting troubles and dead leaves getting everywhere. 🍃
Glad I'm not the only one. : -)
I just bought some from Ebay & would you say it's a good idea just to let it float a few wks to let it get established?
I've had the best luck doing that!
@@PrimeTimeAquatics thank you
Can I add clown loach fish in water wisteria plants ?
Clown loach can harm to water wisteria plants ?
They might dig it up if you plant the wisteria, but we usually float it so it doesn’t matter for us.
Would the wisteria still grow if I accidentally broke off the roots when planting it?
For sure. It mostly likes to float anyway.
Do I have to put in root tabs if I just have water wisteria?
If it isn't rooted into the substrate I would just use liquid ferts.
Was that Heterandria Formosa in the second tank?
Yep, we have a small breeding group. : -)
Is it okay to put emerged growth wisteria right into the substrate instead of floating?
Yes, it may die back a little when fully submerged. However, I had the best luck floating it first and then planting it once the roots started to grow more.
Prime Time Aquatics Thank you for your quick response!
Hi. Which one grows fester?
They both grow pretty fast and both die quick if there aren't enough nutrients in the tank.
Just picked up some Wisteria yesterday but I’ve had Water Sprites for a couple months. They started as one medium sized one and now I have four big ones and easily 4 or 5 smaller ones all from that first plant
Cool! They grow fast!
Does both plants need to be planted in substrate ??
I wind up primarily floating both plants when I have them.
would that be alright with a pothos in the same tank?
If you have a really heavy bio load. I have found pothos out-compete my other plants though.
@@PrimeTimeAquatics maybe you could do a live video on the tank mates for pothos & the
good & bad & benefits there is about the plant in a fish tank & what it's used for & how it works.
What does he mean by cutting the stems on the wisteria?
Just cut them with scissors.
Can i tie it or glue it to rock or wood?
You can try it.I have never had it stay glued or tied through - the stem usually dies back.
Can you plant hornwort
The stems tend to rot if they are planted.
water sprite to keep this plant down cut off an peace of pvc pipe about 2inch around and 1 inch deap place in substrate
This should hold the substrate Tighter and keep the stems in place
Nice idea!
😎
How would you grow wisteria on gravel?
All my wisteria would float and eventually grow some lose root into the substrate, but they generally didn't hold very well.
@@PrimeTimeAquatics so gravel you would plant it the same as substrate?
Does anyone have any ideas why my Water Sprite grows perfectly fine in my lil 10 gal tank but for some reason its struggling in my 40 gal tank. The 10 gal. is mostly shrimp with only few little fish, no special substrate, no CO2, nothing. Most of the time I don't even put the light on bcuz its close to the window and seems to be getting enough light throughout the day. The 40 gal one, I have eco-complete substrate, ill add Seachem Flourish sometimes, and it does grow but it keeps reabsorbing old leafs. I know it usually means not enough nutrients but it just doesnt make sense. The water is identical in terms of parameters. It as regular Fluval eco bright light on it. Overall basic stuff but it even seems like my Amazon swords and java fern aren't growing as good. The Water sprite seems like its sucking out all the nutrients in the water but its not even growing that great. I have 1 floating bunch, 1 I attached to sucktion cup to the glass, and i tried planting one in the substrate. Like I said, it does grow here and there but keeps reabsorbing old leafs which makes it look like crap and never gets that nice bright green color. Im sorry I know its off the subject but had to ask for myself. Any ideas would help. Thank you.
I don't think the eco complete will have an the wisteria since the wisteria is primarily feeding from the water column. Mine would always go through cycles of growing like crazy, die back, and them start growing again. I used Aquarium Co-op easy green and that helped.
@@PrimeTimeAquatics Thank you I appreciate the reply. I'm also considering the Easy Green bcuz its so much easier and convienient than some of the regular products out there. And Mayne I should try the Wisteria instead of W. Sprite but with easy green Sprite may grow better, who knows
I've never got Water Sprite to root in the gravel..it just lets loose,and grows like a floater. Water Wisteria is a standard...just not good for a new tank. It will yellow and sit. In older tanks..it can take over fast.
I'm having this problem right now, why would it yellow? My tank is about 10 weeks in.
I think it depends I just set up a tank and immediately put wisteria in I’m letting it float because when I bought it it was almost completely dead but just a couple days in my brand new tank it’s starting to come back I have a Fluval LED plant light, sponge filter, and I’m putting ferts in the water plus stability by seachem to help jump start my cycling. With the right lights and addictives it can do fine in all tanks even new ones
Jason water sprite is mostly used as a floater plants everyone struggles with rooting
Glad to hear I'm not the only one. : -)