Leaf colourgreen
Native range
- Bolivia
- Brazil North
- Brazil West-Central
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Ecuador
- French Guiana
- Honduras
- Nicaragua
- Peru
- Suriname
- Venezuela
rosette background midground nano tank foreground
The large rosette plant that has stood in the middle of tanks for decades: broad light-green leaves, an easy temper and a size that needs a real aquarium. One plant is enough to fill a background.
- Light
- low
- Difficulty
- easy
- Height
- 20 – 30 cm
- Temperature
- 18 – 30 °C
Parameters
Plant typerosette
Growth ratefast
CO₂ demandlow
Tolerates lightmedium – high
General hardness0 – 30 °dGH
Placementbackground, midground +2
Propagationplantlets on the inflorescence, rhizome division
Grows emersedyes
Appearance
Broad pointed leaves with prominent veins grow in a rosette. In a deep tank the leaves lengthen and lean out over the neighbours — the plant grows towards the light and can outgrow a low aquarium.
Keeping
Easy and forgiving: it grows even in a dimly lit tank and does without carbon dioxide. It feeds through the roots and wants a nutritious substrate — root tablets do more for it than anything added to the water. Old leaves are cut off at the base to keep light reaching the plants beneath it.
Placement
The back of the tank or a single plant as a centrepiece in the middle. It is too big for a small tank: in a nano aquarium it will simply cover everything.
Propagation
It sends up a long shoot on which young plants form; once they have three or four leaves and their own roots, they can be cut off and planted.
Fish and this plant
Water conditions match
The water suits 1015 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 BotiaMarbled 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: Echinodorus amazonicus, Echinodorus bleherae (E. bleheri), Echinodorus grisebachii 'Amazonicus', Echinodorus grisebachii 'Bleherae', Echinodorus grisebachii 'Parviflorus', Echinodorus grisebachii 'Tropica', Echinodorus parviflorus (E. 'peruensis'), Echinodorus parviflorus 'Tropica', Echinodorus Bleheri, Echinodorus Parviflorus