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I have recently found out that my swordplant has the potential to greatly outgrow the confines of my miniature 10 gallon tank. Now, will this definitley happen, or with the plants stay only as large as the tank?

Terrestrial plants can "stunt" it's called bonsai . Copper and cutting of roots is used to keep the tree from grown too much. A plant that has been left in a pot too long will eventually become root bound, the roots end up twisted around each other and the plant won't be able to grow. Not exactly the same as a fish being stunted.

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plants can stunt but ive never been able to accomplish it. my banana plant grows to 30" and then some and my val grows to 40". funnily enough my elodea never grows full stop, rather it just dies. one day i will get to the bottem of that one.

plants will usually feel themselves out. for instance a banana plants pads will grow 6" across if given the chance or if the surface is already crowded with pads grow to a mere 2" across.

light can also play a part though usually in ways which just make the plant look weak. likewise ferts have much the same effect with the same downsides.

to give you a personal example: i had banana plant from the same batch growing in my 5gal and 20gal tanks. both grew in excess of 25-30 inches.

so unfortunetly no it doesnt appear so.

You can keep your sword to a decent size by cutting off the larger leaves as they develop. Make sure you're only cutting the ones around the outside of the plant, not the center leaves. You also want to cut them as close to the crown of the plant as possible so there aren't stubs sticking out all over the place.

HTH,
Sarah

yes i should have thought of that. this method can also be used to stunt val. (eventually) might take a while to get effect though.

Also, decrease the temp. Get fish that like cooler waters and do not use a heater in your tank. This will slow the rate the plants develope, and thus less trimming. Only make sure the plants you get are not cool/cold water plants, like the Madagascar lace. As these will actually thrive in the cooler temps. As for fish, there are many available, one that is very popular is the white clouds. Others would be many of the killifishs, and other minnows. Depending on where you live, there are many attractive darters in the US, that will thrive in tanks without heaters, or low temp tanks.


HTH....

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There is always a bigger fish...

You could always let it grow until it looks too big for your tank and give/trade it out. Swords can get gigantic in a small tank. I saw an Eclipse 12 with a rubin that was about 14". The sword stopped growing at that point, but it wasn't exactly the most beautiful tank I've seen, either.

If you can find compacta swords, pick one of those up... they stay pretty small and aren't really fast growers, either.

I've found in my tanks that really large plants will stun if you have enough light for them to stay short, not all but many act this way, if you add more light they will stop growing since they grow higher to reach the surface to get more light.