Slender Anubias

Anubias gracilis

The most elegant of the anubias: triangular leaves held on long stalks, well clear of the wood they grow on. Tough, slow and almost impossible to kill.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 10 – 60 cm (3.9 – 24 in)
Temperature: 12 – 30 °C (54 – 86 °F)

Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: very slow
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 15 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: cichlid-proof, background +1 cichlid-proof, background, midground
Propagation: rhizome division, division +1 rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Arrow- or triangle-shaped leaves 5–10 cm long on stalks that lift the plant to 10–60 cm depending on age. The leaves are firm and leathery, like all anubias.

Keeping

Easy and very slow — a few leaves a year rather than a month. Dim light suits it best: in bright light the slow leaves collect algae. The one rule is the same for the whole genus: the thick horizontal stem must stay above the substrate, or the plant rots. Tough enough for tanks with large or digging fish, which few plants are.

Placement

Tied to wood or stone in the middle or back of the tank, or planted with the horizontal stem left exposed.

Propagation

By dividing the horizontal stem into pieces with three or four leaves each.

Water conditions match

The water suits 841 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Butterflyfish Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid Pseudomugil paskai

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 Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish 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 Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearl Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid 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: Anubias gracilis Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Anubias gracilis: A.Chev. ex Hutch.
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: VU

Slender Anubias

Tank conditions

Care and keeping