Needle-leaf Ludwigia

Ludwigia brevipes

Thin needle-like leaves on a sturdy stem, turning orange-red at the tips. Close kin to the narrow-leaf ludwigia and a little easier to keep.

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

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 10 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: red accent, midground +1 red accent, midground, nano tank
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Long slender leaves in pairs along a thick stem; green in an ordinary tank, with orange-red growing tips when the light is good and feeding is balanced. Trimmed regularly it branches into a bushy clump.

Keeping

Moderate demands, and light is the main one — colour and density both follow it. Feeding with trace elements helps; carbon dioxide is not required but makes growth noticeably faster. It grows quickly and the trimmed stem replaces cut shoots with side branches.

Placement

The middle of the tank in a group, where the fine leaves stand out against broader neighbours. Small enough for a nano tank.

Propagation

By cuttings: cut a side shoot or a top and plant it.

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.

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

Other varieties: Ludwigia brevipes in Vitro

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Ludwigiantha brevipes Long, Ludwigiantha brevipes
Ludwigia brevipes: (Long) Eames
Family: Onagraceae

Needle-leaf Ludwigia

Tank conditions

Care and keeping