Glosso

Glossostigma elatinoides

A New Zealand plant with round leaves the size of a match head, and the carpet that made Japanese-style layouts famous. Very bright light is not a wish here but a condition.

Light: high
Difficulty: difficult
Height: 3 – 5 cm (1.2 – 2 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: high
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: nano tank, foreground +1 nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners, cuttings +2 runners, cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Pairs of small round leaves on creeping stems, 2–3 cm tall. In strong light it hugs the ground; the moment light is short it turns upwards and grows in storeys, which is the usual sign that something is wrong.

Keeping

Demanding: plenty of light, added carbon dioxide and soft water. Anything taller planted in front of it takes its light away and the carpet breaks up. It grows fast, so a thick mat needs thinning or the bottom layer dies off.

Placement

The very front of the tank, on open ground with nothing shading it. Plant small tufts a few centimetres apart — they close the gaps in a few weeks.

Propagation

By creeping stems: they root as they go, and a rooted piece cut away starts a new patch.

Water conditions match

The water suits 841 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: Glossostigma elatinoides Compact, Glossostigma Elatinoides Platinum

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Tricholoma elatinoides Bentham, Glossostigma elatinoides, Lobelia submersa, Tricholoma elatinoides
Glossostigma elatinoides: (Benth.) Hook. f.
Family: Phrymaceae

Glosso

Tank conditions

Care and keeping