Micro Sword

Lilaeopsis minor

Short blade-like leaves that spread by runners into a neat lawn. The look is closest to real grass of anything in the hobby, and it needs no carbon dioxide.

Light: low
Difficulty: medium
Height: 3 – 6 cm (1.2 – 2.4 in)
Temperature: 4 – 28 °C (39 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
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 pale-green blades 3–6 cm tall grow in small tufts. In bright light the lawn is dense and short; in shade the blades lengthen and thin out.

Keeping

Moderate demands, and light is the deciding one: it must reach the bottom, otherwise the lawn never closes. Growth is slow at first — the runners appear weeks after planting. Carbon dioxide is optional and simply speeds things up.

Placement

The front of the tank, in small tufts a few centimetres apart, with nothing tall shading them. Suits nano tanks.

Propagation

By runners: young tufts appear beside the old and root themselves. Lift a tuft with roots to move it.

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: Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, Lilaeopsis Brasilensis

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Crantzia brasiliensis, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, Lilaeopsis carolinensis minor
Family: Apiaceae

Micro Sword

Tank conditions

Care and keeping