Water Sprite

Ceratopteris thalictroides

A pantropical fern with finely divided leaves that grows either rooted in the substrate or drifting at the surface. It is fast enough to be used deliberately as a nutrient sponge in a young aquarium.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 15 – 30 cm (5.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 18 – 30 °C (64 – 86 °F)

Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: very fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, spawning plant +3 background, spawning plant, midground, specimen, surface
Propagation: plantlets on leaves, spores
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Lacy, deeply cut fronds form a rosette 15 to 30 cm tall. Floating specimens develop a different, broader leaf shape and trail long roots into the water.

Keeping

Very fast in good light, taking up large amounts of nutrients and leaving little for algae — which is precisely why it earns a place in a newly set-up tank. Roots are weak, so a planted specimen is easily uprooted; many keepers simply let it float.

Placement

Background when planted, surface cover when floating. The trailing roots and dense fronds make it one of the best shelters for fry and shrimp.

Propagation

Daughter plants form on the leaf margins of older fronds, root while still attached and drop off on their own. Collecting them is the whole procedure.

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: Ceratopteris siliquosa

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Acrostichum thalictroides L., Ceratopteris froesii Brade, Ceratopteris gaudichaudii Brongn., Ceratopteris siliquosa (L.) Copel., Ceratopteris thalictroides, Ellobocarpus oleraceous, Teleozoma thalictroides
Ceratopteris thalictroides: (L.) Brongn.
Family: Pteridaceae
Conservation status: LC

Water Sprite

Tank conditions

Care and keeping