Cognac Ammannia

Ammannia crassicaulis

Narrow leaves the colour of cognac — reddish brown with a copper cast, a shade almost no other aquarium plant has. It is beautiful and it is fussy.

Light: medium
Difficulty: difficult
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 15 – 31 °C (59 – 88 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: medium
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 9 °dKH
Placement: red accent, background +2 red accent, background, midground, Dutch street
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Long narrow leaves set close along a yellow-green stem; colour runs from burnt orange to red-brown, deeper the brighter the light. A tall stem plant that branches into a dense bush when trimmed.

Keeping

Difficult. It wants soft, slightly acidic water, a nutritious substrate, feeding and carbon dioxide, and it is fussy about one thing in particular: the lower leaves must get light. Shaded by neighbours or by its own top, they die off and the stem goes bare from below.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a group of several stems, with room around it so the light reaches down. It is a plant for a tank built around colour contrast, not for a beginner's first setup.

Propagation

By cuttings and side shoots: cut the top, plant it, and the old stem branches below the cut.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1016 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Spined Loach Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Will uproot it

These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.

Marble Loach Peacock Eel Forktail Loach Guntea Loach Long-nosed Loach Horseface Loach Pearlscale Black Moor Goldfish Shubunkin Painted Pleco Featherfin Synodontis Reddish Mystus Catfish Blue Acara Aulonocara maylandi Aulonocara multicolor Aulonocara Orchid Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearlscale Cichlid Pearl Cichlid Redbelly Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Chuco godmanni Haplochromis philander Red Chromide Jack Dempsey cichlid

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Nesaea crassicaulis, Nesaea Crassicaulis

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Nesaea crassicaulis (Guill. & Perr.) Koehne, Nesaea crassicaulis, Nesaea polyantha
Family: Lythraceae
Conservation status: LC

Cognac Ammannia

Tank conditions

Care and keeping