Horizontal Sword

Aquarius horizontalis

A sword plant that grows outward rather than upward: firm heart-shaped leaves held almost horizontally, so the plant is wider than it is tall. New leaves come up brownish pink and turn green.

Light: low–high
Difficulty: easy
Temperature: 18 – 28 °C (64 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green, pink or purple +1 green, pink or purple, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: slow
Tolerates light: low – high
Placement: midground
Propagation: plantlets on the inflorescence +2 plantlets on the inflorescence, rhizome division, seeds
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Broad heart-shaped blades on long stalks, light to medium green with clear veining, standing out sideways instead of upright. That habit is what the plant is named for and what makes it recognisable at a glance.

Keeping

Easy and slow. Like all sword plants it feeds mainly through the roots, so a nutritious substrate or root tablets matter more than anything dosed in the water. Light can be dim or bright; carbon dioxide is optional. It takes a while to settle after planting and dislikes being moved.

Placement

The middle of the tank, alone. Its width means neighbours have to be planted well clear, and the horizontal leaves shade whatever sits under them.

Propagation

By young plants that form on the flower stalk: leave them until they have roots and leaves of their own, then cut them off and plant them. A large rhizome can also be divided.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1007 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 horizontalis, Echinodorus Horizontalis Variegated, Echinodorus Horizontalis, Echinodorus Horizontalis Mini

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Echinodorus horizontalis, Echinodorus interruptus
Family: Alismataceae

Horizontal Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping