Moneywort

Bacopa monnieri

A slow, sturdy stem plant with thick little leaves, at home in wet ground all over the tropics. It grows in dim light and hard water, and it is one of the few beginner plants that never runs away with the tank.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 3 – 10 cm (1.2 – 3.9 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 9
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 30 °dKH
Placement: background, midground +3 background, midground, Dutch street, nano tank, foreground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Straight stems with pairs of small oval leaves, thick and slightly succulent, of a fresh light green. The plant looks tidy rather than lush, and it keeps that shape for months.

Keeping

Undemanding: dim light, no carbon dioxide, water from soft to hard — all fine. Growth is moderate, so pruning is a monthly job rather than a weekly one. In bright light with added carbon dioxide it stays low and branches out; in shade it stretches upwards.

Placement

The middle of the tank or the front of a group of taller plants; several stems planted a few centimetres apart make a small bush. Above water in an open tank it flowers with small pale blooms.

Propagation

Cut a stem into pieces and plant them — every piece roots. Pinch out the growing tips and the plant answers with side shoots, which is how a single stem becomes a bush.

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 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.

Bacopa monnieri 'Compact'

Bacopa monnieri 'Rundblättrig'

Other varieties: Bacopa monnieri Compact White, Bacopa Monnieri Variegatus, Bacopa Monnieri Platinum

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Bacopa monnieri Typ II, Bacopa monnieri Type II, Bacopa monnieri Typ I, Bacopa monnieri Type I, ? monniera, Allocalyx microphylla, Alonsoa hirsuta, Anisocalyx limnanthiflorus, Bacopa monnieri, Bacopa monnieri cuneifolia, Bacopa monnieria, Bacopa monnieria cuneifolia, Bramia indica, Bramia monniera, Bramia monnieri, Bramia monnieria, Calytriplex obovata, Capraria monnieri, Capraria monnieria, Gratiola monnieri, Gratiola monnieria, Gratiola portulacacea, Gratiola tetrandra, Habershamia cuneifolia, Hemimeris hirsuta, Herpestes monnieria, Herpestis africana, Herpestis brownei, Herpestis calytriplex, Herpestis cuneifolia, Herpestis monniera, Herpestis monnieri, Herpestis monnieria, Herpestis moranensis, Herpestis pedunculosa, Herpestis procumbens, Herpestis spathulata, Hydrotrida beccabunga, Limosella calycina, Lysimachia monnieri, Mecardonia procumbens, Moniera africana, Moniera brownei, Moniera cuneifolia, Moniera moniera, Moniera monnieri, Moniera pedunculosa, Monniera africana, Monniera brownii, Monniera calycina, Monniera cuneifolia, Monniera monniera, Monniera pedunculosa, Ruellia articulata, Thunbergia stolonifera
Bacopa monnieri: (L.) Wettst.
Family: Plantaginaceae
Conservation status: LC

Moneywort

Tank conditions

Care and keeping