Wavy-Leaf Aponogeton

Aponogeton ulvaceus

A bulb plant from Madagascar with translucent, wavy light-green leaves — one plant can carry forty of them. In a large tank it works as a centrepiece that needs no company.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 18 – 34 °C (64 – 93 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 15 °dKH
Placement: background
Propagation: seeds
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Long, almost transparent leaves with crimped edges grow from a bulb; a mature plant is a rosette up to half a metre wide. Light passes through the leaves, which is what gives it its unusual, airy look.

Keeping

Moderate demands: a nutritious substrate, moderate light, and carbon dioxide if faster growth is wanted; soft and hard water both suit it. Some forms take a rest period — the leaves die back and the bulb sits still for a couple of months, then starts again. That is normal and not a sign of a dying plant.

Placement

As a single plant in the back or middle of a large tank. In a small aquarium it simply has no room.

Propagation

In an aquarium it is grown from seed: the plant sends a flower spike to the surface, and the ripe 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 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 ambongensis Jumelle, Aponogeton ambongensis, Aponogeton violaceus
Aponogeton ulvaceus: Baker
Family: Aponogetonaceae
Conservation status: NT