Cuphea

Cuphea anagalloidea

A small stem plant with leaves that run from light green to red and orange under bright light. Most of its genus lives on land — this one is the exception that took to aquariums, and it is not an easy start.

Light: high
Difficulty: difficult
Temperature: 20 – 26 °C (68 – 79 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 7 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: red accent, midground +3 red accent, midground, nano tank, Dutch street, foreground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Small to medium leaves in pairs along a slender stem. The colour depends entirely on conditions: pale green in an ordinary tank, bright red to orange under strong light.

Keeping

Difficult. Strong light is the first requirement and the one that decides the colour; soft, slightly acidic water and steady feeding do the rest. Growth is moderate, so mistakes show slowly and are slow to correct. Worth trying once other coloured stems already grow well for you.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, in a group — the plant is small, and a single stem disappears. Fits a nano tank.

Propagation

By cuttings: cut the top and replant it.

Water conditions match

The water suits 796 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Butterflyfish Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid Pseudomugil paskai Blue-eyed Platydoras

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

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 Pearl Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid 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: Cuphea anagalloidea in Vitro, Cuphea Annagalloidea

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cuphea anagalloidea dumosa, Cuphea anagalloidea subsimplex, Cuphea mimuloides guianensis
Cuphea anagalloidea: A.St.-Hil.
Family: Lythraceae

Cuphea

Tank conditions

Care and keeping