Anacharis

Elodea densa

A fast green stem plant from South America, sold in bunches almost everywhere. It grows in a new tank from the first week and takes up so much nourishment that algae are left with little.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: very fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 9
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 20 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background
Propagation: fragmentation, cuttings
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Upright stems 20–30 cm tall, thickly set with short bright-green leaves in whorls of four or five. From a distance a bunch of stems looks like a soft green hedge.

Keeping

One of the easiest plants there is: cool or warm water, soft or hard, dim light or bright — it grows in all of them, without carbon dioxide. In poor light it does not stop but goes pale and thin. It grows fast enough that it needs cutting back regularly.

Placement

Along the back wall or in the corners, planted in small groups a couple of centimetres apart. It can also be left floating, and then it works as a nitrate sponge and a hiding place for fry. In some countries it is treated as an invasive weed and its sale is restricted — worth a check before buying.

Propagation

Cut off the top 10–15 cm of a stem, strip the leaves from the lowest two centimetres and push that end into the substrate. Roots appear within days. The old stem branches out from the cut and gives new shoots.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1015 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 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: Egeria densa

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Anacharis densa (Planch.) Vict., Elodea canadensis var. gigantea L. H. Bailey, Elodea densa (Planch.) Casp., Philotria densa (Planch.) Small, Udora densa (Planch.) M. R. Almeida, Anacharis densa, Egeria densa, Elodea canadensis gigantea, Elodea densa longifolia, Philotria densa, Potamogeton densus, Udora densa
Family: Hydrocharitaceae

Anacharis

Tank conditions

Care and keeping