Umbrella Hairgrass

Eleocharis vivipara

Tall thin blades that arch over near the surface and grow new little plants right on their tips. It makes a light, grassy screen instead of a solid wall.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 5 – 29 °C (41 – 84 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 5 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: plantlets on the inflorescence +2 plantlets on the inflorescence, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Bright green stems as thin as a needle grow in clumps and bend over at the top. Young plants form at the tips and hang there until they are lowered to the bottom — that is where the name comes from.

Keeping

Moderate demands and a wide tolerance: it lives in a range of water, is happy with medium light and grows steadily. It spreads by runners and fills the gaps between clumps on its own. In a small tank it needs trimming, otherwise it takes over the surface.

Placement

The back or middle of the tank. Fish and shrimp use the arching blades as shade, and the thin leaves do not block light from the plants behind.

Propagation

It does most of it itself: runners spread sideways, and the plantlets on the stem tips can be pinned into the substrate as separate plants.

Water conditions match

The water suits 839 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 Geophagus Brokopondo Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid Pseudomugil paskai

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 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 Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri 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: Eleocharis vivipara Topf, Eleocharis vivipara in Vitro

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Eleocharis curtisii Small, Chlorocharis vivipara, Eleocharis curtisii, Scirpus viviparus, Trichophyllum viviparum
Eleocharis vivipara: Link
Family: Cyperaceae

Umbrella Hairgrass

Tank conditions

Care and keeping