Golden Ammannia

Ammannia pedicellata

Greenish gold leaves on pink stems — one of the very few genuinely golden plants in the hobby. Hardier about water than most coloured stems, but still demanding on light and feeding.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: difficult
Temperature: 15 – 31 °C (59 – 88 °F)

Leaf colour: green, pink or purple +1 green, pink or purple, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 12 °dKH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, Dutch street
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Narrow leaves in pairs along an upright stem; the leaf runs from green to warm gold and the stem stays pink. In a group it reads as a patch of light against green neighbours.

Keeping

Difficult, though not because of water — it tolerates a wide range. The colour is the hard part: it needs good light, a nutritious substrate and steady feeding, and without them the plant is simply green. Growth is moderate; frequent trimming is what turns single stems into a bush.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a group, as a colour accent rather than a mass planting.

Propagation

By cuttings: trim the tops and replant them; the old stems branch from 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 pedicellata, Ammannia pedicellata Golden, Ammannia pedicellata Golden Topf, Ammannia pedicellata Golden in Vitro, Nesaea Pedicellata 'Golden', Nesaea Pedicellata Golden

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Nesaea pedicellata Hiern, Nesaea pedicellata, Nesaea procumbens
Family: Lythraceae
Range regions: Kenya, Tanzania
Conservation status: VU

Golden Ammannia

Tank conditions

Care and keeping