Dark Sword

Echinodorus portoalegrensis

A small, stiff-leaved sword plant from the cool fast rivers of southern Brazil. It has been known to the hobby for decades and has never been common — it simply grows too slowly to be worth a nursery's while.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Height: 5 – 15 cm (2 – 5.9 in)
Temperature: 8 – 27 °C (46 – 81 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: slow
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 7 °dKH
Placement: midground, foreground
Propagation: plantlets on the inflorescence +3 plantlets on the inflorescence, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Firm dark green leaves on short stalks in a low rosette 5–15 cm tall. Several forms exist, differing in height and leaf shape.

Keeping

Moderate demands and slow growth. It comes from rapid, relatively cool water, so a well-moving, not-too-warm tank suits it; light from medium upward and a nutritious substrate do the rest. Expect to wait — this plant changes little from month to month.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, alone or in a small group, where its low compact shape is visible.

Propagation

By young plants on the flower stalk and by dividing the rhizome — both slow.

Water conditions match

The water suits 983 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 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: Echinodorus opacus, Echinodorus opacus Rataj, Echinodorus opacus Rataj in Vitro

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Echinodorus opacus
Family: Alismataceae

Dark Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping