Leaf colourgreen
Native range
- Andaman Is.
- Assam
- Bangladesh
- Borneo
- China South-Central
- China Southeast
- East Himalaya
- Hainan
- India
- Jawa
- Laos
- Lesser Sunda Is.
- Malaya
- Maluku
- Myanmar
- Nansei-shoto
- Nepal
- New Guinea
- Philippines
- Sri Lanka
- Sumatera
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Vietnam
rhizome on stone and wood background midground nano tank foreground Conservation status: LC
The plant most often recommended to a first-time aquarium: it grows tied to wood or stone, needs no special light and no carbon dioxide. Almost nothing kills it, which is why it has been in tanks for a hundred years.
- Light
- low
- Difficulty
- very easy
- Height
- 10 – 45 cm
- Temperature
- 4 – 30 °C
Parameters
Plant typerhizome
Growth rateslow
CO₂ demandlow
Tolerates lightlow – high
pH5 – 7
Carbonate hardness0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness0 – 30 °dGH
Placementon stone and wood +4
Propagationplantlets on leaves +4
Grows emersedyes
Appearance
Long, leathery leaves of a dark green, from 10 to 45 cm depending on the form: some are narrow like straps, others wide with wavy edges. The dark dots and lines that appear on the underside of older leaves are spores, not a disease — the plant is simply getting ready to make new plants.
Keeping
Undemanding to the point of stubbornness: it puts up with soft and hard water alike, dim light and no fertiliser. It grows slowly, and that is its only weak spot — in bright light algae have time to settle on the old leaves, so a shaded corner suits it better than the brightest one.
Placement
Tie it to a piece of wood or a stone with fishing line or a thread until it grips on its own; after a few months the roots hold it by themselves. Do not bury the thick horizontal stem the leaves grow from — under the substrate it rots and the plant is lost. That single rule is the whole secret of this fern.
Propagation
It does the work itself: small plantlets grow right on the older leaves and on the roots, and once they have two or three leaves of their own they can be broken off and tied somewhere else. A piece of the horizontal stem with a leaf and a root will also grow into a new plant.
Fish and this plant
Water conditions match
The water suits 861 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.
ButterflyfishJulii CorydorasFeatherfin SynodontisRed-finned ParotocinclusGastromyzon monticolaEgg-shaped GoldfishFlame TetraGardner's KillifishAfrican TetraHypsolebias picturatusCommon ZaccoLabeo BicolorGambusiaFlying barbGastromyzon scitulusAlbino Zebra DanioGeophagus BrokopondoHomaloptera bilineataRed-tailed RasboraBoraras naevusLampeye KillifishSpotted Raphael CatfishCorydoras melanotaeniaFestivum cichlid
Will eat this plant
These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.
Bengal LoachZebra LoachBurmese Border LoachEmperor BotiaMarbled HeadstanderPellegrin's LeporinusLeporinus striatusFalse Black TetraCommon MetynnisMylossoma duriventreRed Whiptail CatfishMoonlight GouramiMelanotaenia parva
Cultivars
The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.
Other varieties: Microsorum pteropus, Microsorum pteropus 'Crisped Leaves', Microsorum pteropus 'Narrow', Microsorum pteropus 'Needle Leaf', Microsorum pteropus 'Orange Narrow', Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine', Microsorum pteropus 'Red', Microsorum pteropus 'Short Narrow Leaf', Microsorum pteropus 'Taiwan', Microsorum pteropus 'Thors Hammer', Microsorum pteropus 'Trident', Microsorum pteropus 'Tropica', Microsorum pteropus 'Undulata', Microsorum pteropus 'Windeløv', Microsorum pteropus nano wood, Microsorum pteropus 'Windeløv', Microsorum pteropus True Needle Leaf, Microsorum pteropus Petit, Microsorum pteropus Taiwan Narrow, Microsorum pteropus Windelov…