Red Ludwigia

Ludwigia repens

The easiest red plant in the hobby: it turns copper and deep red under decent light without carbon dioxide, which most red plants refuse to do. A group of it is the simplest way to break up an all-green tank.

Light: medium
Difficulty: easy
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 22 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, red accent
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Stems 20–30 cm tall with oval leaves in pairs, green above and reddish underneath. Colour depends on light: in a dim tank it stays olive-green, in a bright one it runs through gold and orange to deep red.

Keeping

Easy for a red plant: it needs moderate light — dim light costs it both colour and the lower leaves — but it does without carbon dioxide, and fertiliser makes the red deeper. Cut it back regularly or the tops shade out everything beneath.

Placement

The middle and back of the tank, in a dense group of eight to ten stems: a single one reads as an accident, a group as a red spot on purpose.

Propagation

Cut off the top of a stem, strip the lowest leaves and plant it; roots follow in a few days. Where a stem touches the ground it roots by itself.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1008 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna

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 Spined Loach Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly 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 Aulonocara maylandi Aulonocara multicolor Aulonocara Orchid Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearlscale Cichlid Pearl Cichlid Redbelly Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Chuco godmanni 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.

Ludwigia repens × arcuata

Ludwigia repens 'Mesakana'

Other varieties: Ludwigia repens 'Rubin', Ludwigia Natans Super Red

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Ludwigia natans Elliott, Isnardia intermedia, Isnardia media, Isnardia natans, Isnardia repens, Isnardia repens rotundata, Jussiaea swartziana, Ludwigia clavellina, Ludwigia fluitans, Ludwigia natans, Ludwigia natans rotundata, Ludwigia natans stipitata, Ludwigia natans typica, Ludwigia repens rotundata, Ludwigia repens stipitata
Ludwigia repens: J. R. Forst.
Family: Onagraceae
Conservation status: LC

Red Ludwigia

Tank conditions

Care and keeping