Anubias

Anubias barteri

A slow, tough plant from West African streams, sold in a dozen forms from tiny to knee-high. Like the Java fern it lives on wood and stones rather than in the substrate, and it survives conditions that finish off most other plants.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 3 – 40 cm (1.2 – 16 in)
Temperature: 12 – 30 °C (54 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: slow
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: on stone and wood +5 on stone and wood, cichlid-proof, midground, background, foreground, nano tank
Propagation: rhizome division, division +1 rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Thick, almost plastic-looking leaves of a deep green on short stalks. Height depends on the form: the dwarf kinds stay 3–10 cm, the large ones reach 40 cm. The leaves are hard enough that fish which chew softer plants usually leave them alone.

Keeping

Easy and forgiving: dim light is enough, carbon dioxide is not needed, and the water may be soft or hard. Growth is very slow — a new leaf a month is normal — so bright light does it no favours: algae settle on leaves that live for years. Shade from taller plants or from wood is exactly right.

Placement

Tie or glue it to wood or stone; the thick horizontal stem must stay above the substrate or it rots. Small forms sit in the front, large ones stand alone as a centrepiece. It is one of the few plants that survive with cichlids, which usually dig up or eat everything else.

Propagation

Cut the horizontal stem into pieces with three or four leaves each and tie every piece down separately. Cut with a clean blade and do not shorten the roots — the plant recovers slowly, and a wound plus lost roots means months of standing still.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1034 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 Featherfin Synodontis 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

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

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.

Anubias barteri var. angustifolia

Anubias barteri var. barteri

Anubias barteri var. caladiifolia

Anubias barteri var. coffeifolia

Anubias barteri var. glabra

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Golden Heart'

Other varieties: Anubias barteri var. nana, Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite' ('Bonsai'), Anubias barteri var. nana 'Round Leaf', Anubias lanceolata, Anubias minima, Anubias barteri 'Coin Leaf', Anubias barteri caladiifolia, Anubias barteri 'Mini Coin', Anubias barteri 'Mini Coin' on stone, Anubias barteri nana, Anubias barteri 'Petite', Anubias barteri sp., Anubias barteri var. nana 'Kirin', Anubias barteri var. nana 'Pinto', Anubias barteri var. nana 'Large', Anubias barteri var nana Petite, Anubias barteri var nana Round Leaf Coin, Anubias barteri var nana Mini, Anubias barteri Compact, Anubias barteri var glabra Minima…

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Anubias lanceolata N. E. Brown, Anubias minima Chevalier
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: LC

Anubias

Tank conditions

Care and keeping