Mexican Cabomba

Cabomba palaeformis

A fan-leaved cabomba from Central America, grown in a green and a red-brown form. Unlike its relatives it puts up with hard water and with warmth.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 20 – 33 °C (68 – 91 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 7 – 21 °dKH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: cuttings, division +1 cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Leaves cut into fine threads and spread into flat fans along the stem. The green form looks much like the common cabomba; the red-brown form is darker and warmer in tone.

Keeping

Moderate demands, and easier than most cabombas on two counts: it does well in medium-hard and hard water, and it tolerates temperatures above 25 °C better than the common species. Good light keeps the fans dense; growth is fast, so trimming is regular. It remains a rarity in shops.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a group of stems.

Propagation

By cuttings: cut the top and plant it.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1014 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: Cabomba palaeformis 'Grün', Cabomba palaeformis 'Rotbraun', Cabomba palaeformis Rio Dulce, Cabomba palaeformis Rio Dulce Bund

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Cabomba palaeformis: Fassett
Family: Cabombaceae

Mexican Cabomba

Tank conditions

Care and keeping