Purple Bacopa

Bacopa salzmannii

The one bacopa that is not green: rounded, slightly fleshy leaves in purple and magenta on a straight stem. Colour that does not require a high-tech tank.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 0 – 30 cm (0 – 12 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, pink or purple
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 18 °dKH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, Dutch street
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Paired rounded leaves sit close along an upright stem; the colour runs from green with a violet underside to solid purple, deeper the brighter the light. Height up to 30 cm.

Keeping

Moderate demands, and it is easier than most coloured stem plants — it keeps some of its colour even in an ordinary tank. Medium light, a nutritious substrate and regular feeding are enough; carbon dioxide speeds growth and deepens the colour. Growth is quick, so expect to trim.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a group of several stems — one purple stem among green ones reads as an accident, a group reads as a design.

Propagation

By cuttings: cut the top, strip the lowest pair of leaves and plant it. The old stem branches from the cut and thickens the group.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1016 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.

Other varieties: Bacopa salzmannii ’Purple’, Bacopa salzmannii Purple, Bacopa salzmannii Purple in Vitro, Bacopa salzmannii Purple Topf, Bacopa Salzmannii Purple

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Bacopa sp. ''Araguaia'', Bacopa humilis (Pennell) Standl., Bacopa lilacina (Pennell) Standl., Bacopa violacea (Pennell) Standl., Herpestis salzmannii Benth., Scrophularia procumbens Vell., Bacopa humilis, Bacopa lilacina, Bacopa salzmanni, Bacopa salzmannii, Bacopa salzmannii caerulea, Bacopa salzmannii coerulea, Bacopa violacea, Herpestes salzmanni, Herpestis salzmannii, Herpestis salzmannii pusilla, Moniera salzmannii, Monniera salzmannii, Monocardia humilis, Monocardia lilacina, Monocardia violacea, Scrophularia procumbens
Bacopa salzmannii: (Benth.) Wettst. ex Edwall
Family: Plantaginaceae

Purple Bacopa

Tank conditions

Care and keeping