Red Lagenandra

Lagenandra meeboldii

Broad oval leaves in dusty green, violet and red-violet, often all on the same leaf; new leaves come up pale pink. Kept exactly like a water trumpet, but the colour is its own.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 10 – 50 cm (3.9 – 20 in)
Temperature: 12 – 28 °C (54 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red, pink or purple
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: slow
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, specimen +2 background, specimen, midground, red accent
Propagation: rhizome division, division +1 rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Leaves 4–8 cm wide and up to twice as long on short stalks, so the whole plant is wide rather than tall — 10–50 cm depending on conditions. The colour needs light to appear: in the shade the plant stays plain green.

Keeping

Easy and slow, and cared for like a crypt: a nutritious substrate, dim to moderate light, carbon dioxide optional. Enough light is the one thing that matters, because it decides whether the plant is green or violet. It dislikes being moved and takes a while to settle after planting.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank as a single specimen — its width makes it a focal point, and a crowd of them turns into a mass of leaves.

Propagation

By dividing the thick horizontal stem: cut it into pieces, each with leaves and roots of its own.

Water conditions match

The water suits 812 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: Lagenandra meeboldii "Grün" ("Green"), Lagenandra meeboldii "Pink", Lagenandra meeboldii "Rot" ("Red"), Lagenandra meeboldii ’Red’, Lagenandra meeboldii Red, Lagenandra meeboldii Red Topf, Lagenandra meeboldii Green, Lagenandra meeboldii Green Topf, Lagenandra meeboldii Red in Vitro, Lagenandra Meeboldii 'Red'

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cryptocoryne meeboldii
Lagenandra meeboldii: (Engl.) C. E. C. Fisch.
Family: Araceae
Range regions: India

Red Lagenandra

Tank conditions

Care and keeping