Pygmy Chain Sword

Helanthium tenellum

rosette nano tank foreground carpet

(Mart. ex Schult. f.) J. G. Sm.

Other scientific names:Echinodorus parvulus Engelm., Helanthium parvulum (Engelm.) Small, Echinodorus tenellus, nordamerikanische Form, ? tenellum, Alisma ranunculoides brasiliense

A small grass-like rosette that spreads by runners into a low green carpet. One of the few carpets that manage without carbon dioxide, though it does want light reaching the bottom.

Light: low
Difficulty: medium
Height: 5 – 15 cm
Temperature: 10 – 35 °C

Leaf colourgreen, red

Plant typerosette

Growth ratefast

CO₂ demandlow

Tolerates lightmedium – high

pH5 – 7

Carbonate hardness0 – 14 °dKH

General hardness0 – 30 °dGH

Placementnano tank, foreground +1

Propagationrunners

Grows emersedyes

Appearance

Narrow leaves 5–15 cm tall in tight little rosettes. In bright light the plant stays low and dense; some forms take on a reddish tint, others stay fresh green.

Keeping

Moderate demands: it wants light that actually reaches the substrate and a nutritious ground, since it feeds mostly through the roots. Carbon dioxide is not required but makes the carpet closer. Taller plants shading it are its usual undoing.

Placement

The front of the tank as a lawn, or the whole floor of a nano tank. Plant single rosettes a few centimetres apart and let the runners close the gaps.

Propagation

By runners, quickly: young rosettes appear along a creeping shoot like beads on a string. Cut the shoot once a youngster has its own roots, or leave it and let the carpet thicken by itself.

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

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Helanthium tenellum 'parvulum'

Other varieties: Echinodorus tenellus, Helanthium tenellum 'Green', Helanthium tenellum Red, Helanthium tenellum Madeira, Helanthium Tenellum Broad Leaf, Helanthium Tenellum Micro, Echinodorus tenellus 'Broad Leaf', Echinodorus tenellus 'Green'