Eleocharis aciularis (Hair Grass)

Dwarf hair grass (Eleocharis acicularis) is a popular aquarium foreground plant often used in aquascapes to create a grass-like carpet look. It’s decorative, not too difficult to grow and shrimp love it. You can keep it short by trimming regularly or let it grow tall to provide your shrimp with a great place to hide and forage. You can even grow it emersed!

Its grass-like look and creeping growth pattern make it a striking carpeting plant. If you prefer the overgrown jungle look over the meticulously maintained carpet style you can also let it grow free and tall by only trimming once in a while.  This plant can also be grown emersed, which makes it a great option for paludariums that have part of the plants growing above the water line.

Eleocharis pusilla (often sold under the name “E. parvula”) is quite similar to E. acicularis, but it’s submersed form stays smaller (grows only 5 cm high) and is of a light green colour under the same conditions, and its leaves are bent.

Plant info
Type: Grass
Place of origin: Central Europe
Maximum height: 10-15 cm
Growth rate: Fast growing, may need trimming more than other plants
Lighting: Medium
CO2: not needed
Demands: Easy
Position range: Foreground where it will not detract from your background
Substrate: Small granulated gravel or sand
Propagation: Runners
Temperature range: 10-28°C
pH: 6.5-7.5
Hardness: 2-10 KH