Tall Micro Sword

Lilaeopsis macloviana

The large member of a genus known for lawns: blades long enough to reach the middle of a tank. Same grass-like look, quite a different role in a layout.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Height: 30 – 50 cm (12 – 20 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: runners, division +1 runners, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Narrow flat blades 30–50 cm long in tufts joined by creeping runners — where its relatives make a carpet, this one makes a stand of grass.

Keeping

Moderate demands: medium to strong light, a nutritious substrate, no carbon dioxide required. Growth is quick for the genus, and the colony spreads sideways as much as it grows upward, so thinning it is the regular job.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, where the long blades can lean with the current. Its habit is close to that of a small vallisneria.

Propagation

By runners: separate rooted tufts and replant them.

Water conditions match

The water suits 816 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.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Crantzia lineata subulata, Crantzia macloviana, Lilaeopsis andina, Lilaeopsis andina subulata, Lilaeopsis andina inundata, Lilaeopsis andina microcarpa, Lilaeopsis andina multivittata, Lilaeopsis exigua, Lilaeopsis hillii, Lilaeopsis patagonica, Lilaeopsis sinuata
Lilaeopsis macloviana: (Gand.) A.W. Hill
Family: Apiaceae