Dwarf Microcarpaea

Microcarpaea minima

Very fine needle-shaped leaves in pairs along thin stems. It can be cut low into a carpet or left to grow into a soft cloud of green at the back — rare, and not as delicate to keep as it looks.

Light: high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 20 – 30 °C (68 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, nano tank +1 midground, nano tank, foreground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Narrow leaves a few millimetres long in opposite pairs on slim stems. At a glance it is close to pearlweed and mayaca; the paired leaves are what tell it apart.

Keeping

Moderate demands with one clear requirement: strong light. In the shade the stems stretch and the group thins out. Carbon dioxide is not required, though it makes the growth denser. Trimming decides the shape — cut it often for a low carpet, leave it for a rounded bush.

Placement

The front of the tank as a fine carpet, or the middle and back as a soft hedge. Its size suits a nano tank.

Propagation

By cuttings: replant the trimmed tops.

Water conditions match

The water suits 839 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: Microcarpaea minima in Vitro, Microcarpaea Minima Merrill

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Ammannia dentelloides, Microcarpaea alterniflora, Microcarpaea muscosa, Paederia minima, Paederota minima
Microcarpaea minima: (K.D. Koenig ex Retz.) Merr.
Family: Phrymaceae
Conservation status: LC

Dwarf Microcarpaea

Tank conditions

Care and keeping