Ussuri Watermilfoil

Myriophyllum ussuriense

Feathery green whorls on soft stems — the plainest and toughest of the watermilfoils. It grows in cold water as readily as in warm and needs no carbon dioxide.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: very easy
Temperature: 4 – 32 °C (39 – 90 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 15 °dKH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Leaves cut into fine threads and set in whorls along a slim stem, bright green. Planted in a bunch the stems merge into one soft feathery mass.

Keeping

Very easy and fast. It puts up with a wide range of water and temperature, needs no carbon dioxide and takes nutrients straight from the water. The only regular job is trimming: left alone it reaches the surface and shades whatever grows beneath it.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, in a dense group — single stems look thin. It also works as a nursery thicket for fry.

Propagation

By cuttings: any piece of stem replanted carries on growing.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1017 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.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Myriophyllum verticillatum var. ussuriense Regel, Myriophyllum sp. ''Japan'', Myriophyllum isoetophilum, Myriophyllum propinquum, Myriophyllum ussuriensis, Myriophyllum verticillatum ussuriense
Myriophyllum ussuriense: Maxim.
Family: Haloragaceae
Conservation status: LC