Leaf colourgreen
Native range
- Comoros
- Madagascar
rosette background midground Conservation status: LC
The plant whose leaves are a skeleton of veins with holes between them — nothing else in an aquarium looks like it. Beautiful and genuinely demanding: clean water and patience are the price.
- Light
- medium
- Difficulty
- medium
- Height
- 20 – 50 cm
- Temperature
- 5 – 33 °C
Parameters
Plant typerosette
Growth ratefast
CO₂ demandlow
Tolerates lightlow – high
Carbonate hardness2 – 12 °dKH
Placementbackground, midground
Propagationseeds
Grows emersedno
Appearance
Long leaves 20–50 cm made of a lattice of veins, dark green and translucent. Forms differ in how wide the leaf and how fine the mesh.
Keeping
The most demanding plant in this catalogue after the dwarf baby tears, and demanding in a different way: it needs clean, frequently changed water and a nutritious substrate more than bright light. Debris settling in the leaf lattice is its usual killer. Plant the bulb so that the growing tip stays at the surface of the substrate. Rest periods with dying leaves are normal.
Placement
A single plant in a large tank, where nothing shades it and the water moves. It is not a plant for a first aquarium.
Propagation
It flowers readily in an aquarium; ripe seeds are sown on the substrate. Bulbs are usually bought rather than divided.
Fish and this plant
Water conditions match
The water suits 1017 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.
Swordtail GuppiesCobra GuppyBlood Red MollyButterflyfishRed Zebra CichlidJulii CorydorasRed-finned ParotocinclusGastromyzon monticolaEgg-shaped GoldfishFlame TetraGardner's KillifishAfrican TetraKenyi CichlidCuckoo CatfishGolden SwordtailHypsolebias picturatusCommon ZaccoLabeo BicolorGambusiaFlying barbGastromyzon scitulusAlbino Zebra DanioGeophagus BrokopondoZebra Mbuna
Will eat this plant
These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.
Bengal LoachZebra LoachBurmese Border LoachEmperor BotiaSpined LoachMarbled HeadstanderPellegrin's LeporinusLeporinus striatusFalse Black TetraCommon MetynnisMylossoma duriventreRed Whiptail CatfishMolly sphenopsBalloon MollyLyretail MollyMarble MollyHi-Fin PlatyHawaii PlatyBlue PlatyPintail PlatyBlack PlatyChocolate MollyMoonlight GouramiMelanotaenia parva
Will uproot it
These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.
Marble LoachPeacock EelForktail LoachGuntea LoachLong-nosed LoachHorseface LoachPearlscaleBlack Moor GoldfishShubunkinPainted PlecoFeatherfin SynodontisReddish Mystus CatfishBlue AcaraAulonocara maylandiAulonocara multicolorAulonocara OrchidGeophagus altifronsGeophagus winemilleriPearlscale CichlidPearl CichlidRedbelly CichlidRed-spotted CichlidChuco godmanniHaplochromis philanderRed ChromideJack Dempsey cichlid
Cultivars
The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.
Other varieties: Aponogeton madagascariensis var. madagascariensis, Aponogeton Henkelianus Bulb