Pygmy Chain Sword

Helanthium tenellum

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 (2 – 5.9 in)
Temperature: 10 – 35 °C (50 – 95 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: nano tank, foreground +1 nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners
Grows emersed: yes

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

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.

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'

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Echinodorus parvulus Engelm., Helanthium parvulum (Engelm.) Small, Echinodorus tenellus, nordamerikanische Form, ? tenellum, Alisma ranunculoides brasiliense, Alisma tenellum, Echinodorus parvulus, Echinodorus parvulus randii, Echinodorus subulatus, Echinodorus tenellus randii, Echinodorus tenellus ecostatus, Echinodorus tenellus parvulus, Echinodorus tenellus tenellus, Helanthium parvulum, Helanthium tenellum, Helanthium tenellus, Helianthium parvulum, Helianthium tenellum, Sagittaria tenella
Helanthium tenellum: (Mart. ex Schult. f.) J. G. Sm.
Family: Alismataceae

Pygmy Chain Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping