Narrow Leaf Micro Sword

Lilaeopsis mauritiana

A grass lawn for the front of the tank, with blades finer than the usual micro sword. It spreads by runners and closes into a carpet on its own — slowly.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 20 – 30 °C (68 – 86 °F)

Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: slow
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: nano tank, foreground +1 nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners, division +1 runners, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Narrow needle-thin blades a few centimetres tall grow in small tufts from a creeping stem. Finer and lighter-looking than the common micro sword.

Keeping

Moderate demands and slow growth: it wants good light reaching the bottom and a nutritious substrate, and carbon dioxide makes it noticeably quicker to close up. Plant small tufts a couple of centimetres apart and leave them alone — the gaps fill by themselves over a few months. Shaded by taller plants it thins out and disappears.

Placement

The front of the tank, as a lawn. Its size suits a nano tank whole.

Propagation

By runners: new tufts appear beside the old ones and can be cut off and replanted to speed the carpet along.

Water conditions match

The water suits 814 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: Lilaeopsis mauritiana Topf, Lilaeopsis mauritiana in Vitro XL

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Lilaeopsis sp. ''Mauritius''
Lilaeopsis mauritiana: G. Petersen & Affolter
Family: Apiaceae

Narrow Leaf Micro Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping