Southern Bacopa

Bacopa australis

A small bacopa from southern Brazil with round bright-green leaves. It grows upright or creeps along the bottom into a low cushion, whichever the light asks for.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 5 – 40 cm (2 – 16 in)
Temperature: 4 – 35 °C (39 – 95 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, foreground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Thin stems 5–40 cm tall with small round leaves in pairs. Under strong light the leaves take on a reddish tint and the plant stays compact; in shade it stretches upwards.

Keeping

Moderate demands and a forgiving temper: it puts up with a wide range of water and grows without special care. Carbon dioxide and bright light make it creep along the bottom instead of climbing, which is how the cushion forms.

Placement

The middle and back of the tank; pinched back it also works as a low front planting. A group of several stems reads far better than one.

Propagation

Take a side shoot and plant it in the substrate — it roots readily. Pinching the tips brings out more side shoots.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1008 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.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Bacopa australis: V. C. Souza
Family: Plantaginaceae