parrot's feather

If you know about this plant, you might cringe that I bought some.

I just guessed at it's name when I saw it at the nursery- having seen it mentioned online somewhere. I was there to buy grass seed and perennials, and found a small outdoor area with pond plants. Saw this stiff, ferny stuff with emergent growth in shallow water and thought hey, that might grow nicely in the back of my window tank- and be permanent, I wouldn't have to be restarting sweet potato or coleus cuttings every few months.

I even thought the underwater part of the stems would add interesting texture in background-

and it sure does:

really first of all I wanted this elodea- as floaters but a lot of them half sank, so I stuck behind the bolbitis hill

Moved the sweet potato vines to either side of the tank-

to stick the parrot's feather in center. They wilted but sure perked up again fast- second picture is from the next day:

here's the other half of them:

Unfortunately they brought in pests- I found tiny gray aphids deep in the fronds. Pretty sure the fish would eat those under the water- in fact I saw some do so later- but I didn't want any on the emergent parts spreading to nearby houseplants. So- I did what I usually do to clear pests off houseplants. Dunked the tops of the stems in a bowl of soapy water for twenty minutes. Then rinsed and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, until no more specks of aphids came out, and no trace of dishsoap.

The stems make this tank look wild. Side view can see what an impact-

other side-

Noticed one of the bolbitis fronds has grown some-

Laddie seems to like the new plants. Showing more color in the tail

But to my dismay when I came home looking up more info, found out that parrot's feather is considered a highly invasive plant in my state! it never occured to me to ask the man that question at the nursery. He told me it needs high light- so either my dimmer window (and tank light in the 45) will keep it a bit in check or make it grow leggy and unattractive. Or it will overpower everything and I will regret and throw it all out- ! As with the duckweed and salvinia, I will have to make sure any trimmings or removed pieces are dried to a crisp before composting them.