Amazon Sword

Aquarius grisebachii

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 (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 18 – 30 °C (64 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +2 background, midground, nano tank, foreground
Propagation: plantlets on the inflorescence, rhizome division
Grows emersed: yes

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.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1015 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.

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

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Echinodorus amazonicus Rataj, Echinodorus bleherae Rataj, Echinodorus bleheri Rataj, Echinodorus parviflorus Rataj, Echinodorus amazonicus, Echinodorus amazonicus parviflorus, Echinodorus amphibius, Echinodorus bleherae, Echinodorus eglandulosus, Echinodorus gracilis, Echinodorus grisebachii, Echinodorus grisebachii minor, Echinodorus heikobleheri, Echinodorus parviflorus
Family: Alismataceae

Amazon Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping