Guppy Grass

Najas guadalupensis

A loose tangle of brittle stems with narrow leaves that grows in almost any water, planted or floating. The standard plant for a fry tank: fast, thirsty and full of hiding places.

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

Native rangeRange on the map

Alabama
Alberta
Argentina Northeast
Argentina Northwest
Arizona
Arkansas
Aruba
Bahamas
Bolivia
Brazil North
California
Colombia
Colorado
Connecticut
Costa Rica
Cuba
Delaware
District of Columbia
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Florida
Galápagos
Georgia
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Jamaica
Kansas
Kentucky
Leeward Is.
Louisiana
Maine
Manitoba
Maryland
Massachusetts
Mexico Central
Mexico Gulf
Mexico Northeast
Mexico Northwest
Mexico Southeast
Mexico Southwest
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Netherlands Antilles
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Nicaragua
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Ontario
Oregon
Panamá
Pennsylvania
Peru
Puerto Rico
Québec
Rhode I.
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Uruguay
Utah
Venezuelan Antilles
Venezuela
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: very fast
Tolerates light: low – high
Carbonate hardness: 1 – 21 °dKH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, surface
Propagation: fragmentation, cuttings +2 fragmentation, cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Thin stems with short narrow leaves, bright green and easily broken. It makes an airy thicket rather than a neat bush; roots are fine and often absent altogether.

Keeping

Very easy and very fast — it grows in dim light, in cold water and without carbon dioxide, and takes nutrients straight from the water. That speed is what makes it useful in a new tank or a fry tank, where it starves algae. It also means regular removal of excess by hand.

Placement

Floating at the surface or loosely anchored in the middle and back. Fry and shrimp live inside the thicket, which is why it is kept in breeding tanks.

Propagation

It breaks up by itself: every fragment 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.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Najas guadalupensis ’Guppy Grass’, Najas guadalupensis 1 2 GROW

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Caulinia guadalupensis Sprengel, Caulinia guadalupensis, Najas flexilis guadalupensis, Najas guadalupensis guadalupensis, Najas microdon, Najas microdon guadalupensis
Najas guadalupensis: (Spreng.) Magnus
Family: Hydrocharitaceae
Conservation status: LC

Guppy Grass

Tank conditions

Care and keeping