I got some Ceratopteris thalictroides Water Sprite from an Internet dealer in Florida last June and all was well for a while. It grew great at first but then began to slowly fizzle out. I mean real slow like a guy that married the wrong woman. I mix R/O and tap to make my water come out to 60 PPM TDS. I also add four teaspoons of aquarium salt per ten gallons of water as advised by Ed Warner in his seminal masterpiece "Success With Killifish". The salt does not affect my Microsorium pteropus Java Fern or my Vesicularia dubyana Java Moss. Both those plants are luxuriant. I grew the Water Sprite as a floating plant in a ten gallon under a single 15 watt fluorescent tube bulb. Where and how did I go wrong ?

Medric,

My suspicion is the salt.  Water sprite is from extremely soft water and no salts.

I hope this helps,

Jim Langan, AKA Webmaster

Thank you Mr. Langan. I have the soft water and everything else so the salt must be the culprit.

I agree, that seems like a lot of salt for water sprite.  I haven't kept it for awhile but when I did it was in tanks with really soft water and the key I found for floating water sprite was the cover.  The added humidity above the water level made the floating water sprite flourish.