Boivin's Aponogeton

Aponogeton boivinianus

A big bulb plant from the fast streams of Madagascar, with heavily ruffled dark leaves. In a large tank a single plant fills the back wall.

Light: medium
Difficulty: easy
Height: 20 – 80 cm (7.9 – 31 in)
Temperature: 16 – 33 °C (61 – 91 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 7 – 21 °dKH
Placement: background
Propagation: seeds, division +1 seeds, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Long strap leaves with a deeply ruffled, almost hammered surface; new leaves come up light green or reddish and darken to deep green with age. Under good conditions the leaves reach 20–80 cm, so the plant needs a tall tank.

Keeping

Easy for its size, with two rules. Bury the bulb only halfway: covered completely, it rots. And keep conditions steady — sudden changes make the leaves melt. It likes some water movement, as in the streams it comes from, and root feeding pays off. After a while it drops all its leaves and rests for a few weeks, then starts again; that is normal, do not throw the bulb away.

Placement

The back of a large tank, alone. In a small aquarium it simply runs out of room.

Propagation

It flowers and sets seed in an aquarium; the seeds are sown on the substrate. Bulbs are usually bought rather than divided.

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.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Aponogeton boivinianus
Aponogeton boivinianus: Baill. ex Jum.
Family: Aponogetonaceae