Monte Carlo

Micranthemum tweedei

Round leaves on creeping stems that knit into a low green carpet — the easiest of the modern carpet plants and the usual first choice for a lawn.

Light: medium
Difficulty: easy
Height: 1 – 5 cm (0.4 – 2 in)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 12 °dKH
Placement: carpet
Propagation: cuttings, division +1 cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Fresh light green leaves the size of a match head on stems that run along the substrate, 1–5 cm tall. The carpet is soft and slightly uneven rather than flat as a board.

Keeping

Easy for a carpet plant, which is what made it popular: it tolerates light shade, though good light and carbon dioxide are what make it compact. Without them it grows upward in layers instead of spreading. It roots quickly — press small portions into the substrate a couple of centimetres apart and it closes up in a few weeks.

Placement

The front of the tank as a lawn, and over low stones, where it hangs down the edges.

Propagation

By division: lift a piece of the carpet, split it and press the parts back in.

Water conditions match

The water suits 841 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: Micranthemum tweediei, Micranthemum tweediei ’Monte Carlo’, Micranthemum tweediei Montecarlo 3, Micranthemum tweediei Montecarlo 3 Topf, Micranthemum tweediei Montecarlo 3 1 2 GROW, Micranthemum tweediei Montecarlo 3 in Vitro XL

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Micranthemum sp. ''Montecarlo-3'', Micranthemum sp. ''Montecarlo'', Micranthemum sp. ''Monte Carlo'', Micranthemum orbiculatum tweediei, Micranthemum orbiculatum tweedyi, Micranthemum tweediei
Family: Linderniaceae

Monte Carlo

Tank conditions

Care and keeping