Needle-Leaf Ludwigia

Ludwigia arcuata

A ludwigia with narrow, almost needle-like leaves that turn bronze and red in good light. Finer in texture than the usual red plants and easier than most of them.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 12 – 28 °C (54 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 15 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: red accent, midground +1 red accent, midground, nano tank
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Slender stems with narrow leaves in pairs, olive-green in shade and copper to red in bright light. Trimmed regularly it branches into a dense, fine-textured bush.

Keeping

Moderate demands: it wants decent light for the colour, and fertiliser deepens it. Carbon dioxide is helpful but not a condition. Frequent pruning is what keeps it bushy rather than leggy.

Placement

The middle of the tank as a colour accent, in a group of several stems; its fine leaves suit a nano tank.

Propagation

Cut a shoot, strip the lowest leaves and plant it. Cuttings root quickly and the cut stem branches.

Water conditions match

The water suits 835 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: Ludwigia pedunculosa Michaux, Isnardia arcuata, Isnardia pedunculosa, Ludwigia pedunculosa, Ludwigiantha arcuata
Ludwigia arcuata: Walter
Family: Onagraceae