Dwarf Baby Tears

Micranthemum callitrichoides

The smallest plant in the hobby: round leaves a couple of millimetres across, creeping into a velvet-green floor. The classic carpet of show tanks — and one that will not forgive a dim lamp or a missing carbon dioxide bottle.

Light: high
Difficulty: difficult
Height: 3 – 5 cm (1.2 – 2 in)
Temperature: 18 – 28 °C (64 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 18 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: nano tank, foreground +1 nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners, cuttings +2 runners, cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Threadlike stems with paired leaves the size of a pinhead form a mat 3–5 cm deep. In good conditions the leaves hold bubbles of oxygen, and the carpet looks as if it has been sprinkled with beads.

Keeping

The most demanding plant in this catalogue. It needs strong light reaching the bottom, added carbon dioxide, fertiliser and some water movement; without them the mat thins out, lifts off the substrate and floats away in patches. A first carpet is easier with a clover or a hairgrass.

Placement

The front of the tank, and in a nano tank the whole floor. Plant it in small tufts a couple of centimetres apart and let them grow together — a whole pot pressed down in one piece rots from below.

Propagation

The mat spreads on its own. Cut a piece off with tweezers and plant it elsewhere; each fragment carries on creeping.

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: Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba', Micranthemum callitrichoides 'Cuba', Hemianthus Callitrichoides

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Globifera adenandra, Globifera callitrichodes, Globifera callitrichoides, Globifera ciliolata, Globifera elatinoides, Globifera punctata, Hemianthus adenander, Hemianthus callitrichoides, Hemianthus elatinoides, Hemianthus multiflorus, Hemianthus punctatus, Hemisiphonia antillana, Micranthemum adenander, Micranthemum adenandrum, Micranthemum ciliolatum, Micranthemum elatinoides, Micranthemum multiflorum, Micranthemum punctatum
Family: Linderniaceae

Dwarf Baby Tears

Tank conditions

Care and keeping