Spade-leaf Sword

Aquarius cordifolius

A big sword plant with wide, wavy, light green leaves. Fast for its size, undemanding, and one of the classic centrepieces for a large tank.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 20 – 50 cm (7.9 – 20 in)
Temperature: 5 – 30 °C (41 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
Placement: semi-emersed, background +2 semi-emersed, background, midground, specimen
Propagation: plantlets on the inflorescence +4 plantlets on the inflorescence, rhizome division, seeds, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Broad heart-shaped blades on long stalks, 20–50 cm tall in a rosette a hand's span across. Rather than leaving the water, a large plant spreads its biggest leaves just under the surface.

Keeping

Easy and quick for a sword plant. Dim light is enough, carbon dioxide is optional, and a nutritious substrate does most of the work — like all swords it feeds mainly through the roots. Its size is the only real demand: in a small tank the leaves cover the whole surface.

Placement

The middle or back of a large tank, alone. Plants beneath it will be shaded, so leave the space around it clear.

Propagation

By young plants on the flower stalk, by dividing the rhizome, and from seed.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1017 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.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Echinodorus cordifolius, Echinodorus cordifolius 'Mini', Echinodorus cordifolius ''ovalis'', Echinodorus cordifolius 'Tropica Marble Queen', Echinodorus ovalis, Echinodorus cordifolius ’Fluitans’, Echinodorus cordifolius Fluitans, Echinodorus cordifolius Fluitans Topf, Echinodorus cordifolius Tropica Marble Queen, Echinodorus cordifolius Tropica Marble Queen Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Alisma cordifolium L., Echinodorus fluitans Fassett, Echinodorus radicans (Nutt.) Engelm., Sagittaria cordifolia (L.) Lam., Sagittaria radicans Nutt., Echinodorus ovalis C. Wright ex Sauvalle, Alisma cordifolium, Damasonium cordifolium, Echinodorus cordifolius, Echinodorus cordifolius cordifolius, Echinodorus cordifolius fluitans, Echinodorus fluitans, Echinodorus ovalis, Echinodorus radicans, Sagittaria cordifolia, Sagittaria radicans
Family: Alismataceae

Spade-leaf Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping