Crinkled Aponogeton

Aponogeton crispus

A bulb plant from Sri Lanka with large, slightly translucent leaves and crimped edges. It grows quickly, needs no carbon dioxide and fills a background on its own.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Height: 30 – 50 cm (12 – 20 in)
Temperature: 15 – 34 °C (59 – 93 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 15 °dKH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: seeds
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Light green leaves 30–50 cm long with wavy edges rise from a bulb in a broad rosette. Light passes through them, which is what gives the plant its airy look.

Keeping

Easy and fast-growing: a nutritious substrate and moderate light are enough. Soft, slightly acidic water suits it best. Some plants take a rest period, when the leaves die back and the bulb sits still for a few weeks before starting again — that is normal.

Placement

The back of the tank or a single plant in the middle. In a small aquarium it quickly takes over.

Propagation

In an aquarium it comes from seed: the plant sends a flower spike to the surface, and ripe seeds are sown on the substrate.

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 echinatus, Spathium crispum, Spathium echinatum
Aponogeton crispus: Thunb.
Family: Aponogetonaceae
Conservation status: LC