Robinson's Aponogeton

Aponogeton robinsonii

A bulb plant from the slow, very soft rivers of Vietnam and Laos. Two rather different plants travel under this name: one makes floating leaves, the other long wavy ribbons under water.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Temperature: 12 – 30 °C (54 – 86 °F)

Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 4 – 12 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background
Propagation: rhizome division, seeds +2 rhizome division, seeds, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

The typical plant grows mostly floating leaves at the surface. The form long kept in aquariums instead makes long, strap-shaped, wavy submerged leaves and no true floating ones — that is the plant most keepers mean by this name.

Keeping

Easy and quick for a bulb plant: light from medium upward, no carbon dioxide required, a nutritious substrate. It comes from very soft water and muddy or stony ground. As with every bulb plant, do not bury the bulb completely.

Placement

The back of the tank. Remember that a plant making floating leaves will shade what grows beneath it.

Propagation

By dividing the rhizome and from seed.

Water conditions match

The water suits 816 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: Aponogeton robinsonii Laos, Aponogeton robinsonii Laos Einzelpflanze

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Aponogeton eberhardtii A. Camus, Aponogeton eberhardtii
Aponogeton robinsonii: A. Camus
Family: Aponogetonaceae

Robinson's Aponogeton

Tank conditions

Care and keeping