Needle-leaf Pipewort

Eriocaulon setaceum

A tall pipewort with white needle-thin leaves and dozens of side shoots, from the waters of Southeast Asia and Australia. One of the plants people build a whole tank around.

Light: high
Difficulty: difficult
Temperature: 20 – 30 °C (68 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: white markings
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 7 °dKH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Very fine, almost white needle leaves along an upright stem that branches freely as it grows, so a single plant becomes a feathery column.

Keeping

Difficult, and specific about it: an acidic substrate, soft water of about 4 °dH or less, strong light and carbon dioxide are all required. Feeding must stay balanced — nitrate, phosphate, iron and trace elements all present, none allowed to run out. Keepers often set up a separate tank for this plant and its relatives rather than fit it into a general community aquarium.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, clear of faster neighbours that would shade it.

Propagation

By cuttings of the side shoots.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1014 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 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: Eriocaulon setaceum in Vitro

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Eriocaulon aquaticum, Eriocaulon bifistulosum, Eriocaulon capillus-naiadis, Eriocaulon cauliferum, Eriocaulon equisetoides, Eriocaulon fluitans, Eriocaulon intermedium, Eriocaulon intermedium brevicaule, Eriocaulon intermedium glabrum, Eriocaulon limosum, Eriocaulon melanocephalum usterianum, Eriocaulon schweinfurthii, Eriocaulon usterianum, Lasiolepis aquatica
Eriocaulon setaceum: L.
Family: Eriocaulaceae
Conservation status: LC

Needle-leaf Pipewort

Tank conditions

Care and keeping