Giant Ambulia

Limnophila aquatica

Wide wheels of thread-fine leaves along a tall stem — the biggest and softest of the ambulias, like a green bottle brush. A group of it is one of the best background plantings there is.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 18 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background
Propagation: runners, cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Finely divided leaves arranged in wide whorls, light green, on a stem 20–30 cm tall. In good light it puts out horizontal side shoots and turns bushy instead of leggy.

Keeping

Moderate demands: a nutritious substrate, medium light, and carbon dioxide if you want the growth to be really dense. It grows fast and reaches the surface quickly, so trimming is routine. In an open tank the shoots leave the water and flower there in small blue blooms.

Placement

The back of the tank in a small group of stems — a single one looks thin, several look like a soft green hedge.

Propagation

By cuttings, and by runners the plant sends out at the base.

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.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Limnophila aquatica Topf, Limnophila aquatica 1 2 GROW

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cyrilla aquatica Roxb., Ambulia racemosa, Cyrilla aquatica, Diceros aquaticus, Limnophila hyssopifolia, Limnophila racemosa, Terebinthina racemosa
Limnophila aquatica: (Roxb.) Alston
Family: Plantaginaceae

Giant Ambulia

Tank conditions

Care and keeping