Leaf colourgreen, red +1
Native range
- Brazil North
- Colombia
- Venezuela
stem plant midground
A fine South American plant that roots in the substrate and floats at the surface: reddish stems with hair-thin olive shoots in tufts. Beautiful, extremely demanding, and almost never seen in tanks.
- Light
- high
- Difficulty
- difficult
- Temperature
- 20 – 32 °C
Parameters
Plant typestem plant
Growth ratefast
Carbonate hardness0 – 3 °dKH
Placementmidground
Propagationfragmentation, cuttings
Grows emersedno
Appearance
A reddish-brown stem carrying tufts of hair-like olive green shoots at the joints, floating in the upper water rather than standing upright. It looks nothing like the other spikerushes and closer to a najas.
Keeping
Difficult, and honestly so: it is described as a soft-water plant that has only been kept successfully for a while, not permanently. It needs strong light and very soft water. It is worth knowing about mainly because the plant is beautiful and because the failures are not the keeper's fault.
Placement
The middle of the tank, in the upper water where its shoots float.
Propagation
By cuttings; the stems also break up and the fragments carry on growing.
Fish and this plant
Water conditions match
The water suits 1014 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.
Swordtail GuppiesCobra GuppyBlood Red MollyButterflyfishRed Zebra CichlidJulii CorydorasRed-finned ParotocinclusGastromyzon monticolaEgg-shaped GoldfishFlame TetraGardner's KillifishAfrican TetraKenyi CichlidCuckoo CatfishGolden SwordtailHypsolebias picturatusCommon ZaccoLabeo BicolorGambusiaFlying barbGastromyzon scitulusAlbino Zebra DanioGeophagus BrokopondoZebra Mbuna
Will eat this plant
These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.
Bengal LoachZebra LoachBurmese Border LoachEmperor BotiaMarbled HeadstanderPellegrin's LeporinusLeporinus striatusFalse Black TetraCommon MetynnisMylossoma duriventreRed Whiptail CatfishMolly sphenopsBalloon MollyLyretail MollyMarble MollyHi-Fin PlatyHawaii PlatyBlue PlatyPintail PlatyBlack PlatyChocolate MollyMoonlight GouramiMelanotaenia parva
Will uproot it
These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.
Marble LoachPeacock EelForktail LoachGuntea LoachLong-nosed LoachHorseface LoachPearlscaleBlack Moor GoldfishShubunkinPainted PlecoFeatherfin SynodontisReddish Mystus CatfishBlue AcaraAulonocara maylandiAulonocara multicolorAulonocara OrchidGeophagus altifronsGeophagus winemilleriPearlscale CichlidPearl CichlidRedbelly CichlidRed-spotted CichlidChuco godmanniHaplochromis philanderRed ChromideJack Dempsey cichlid
Cultivars
The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.
Other varieties: Egleria fluctuans, Eleocharis fluctuans In Vitro