Tiger Lotus

Nymphaea lotus

A water lily grown from a bulb, with big leaves that go from bronze to deep red with darker spots. In a large tank one plant is enough to become the centre of the whole picture.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 20 – 30 cm (7.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: runners, seeds
Grows emersed: unknown

Appearance

Broad heart-shaped leaves on long stalks rise from a bulb at the bottom. Colour runs from olive-bronze to red with dark speckles, deeper the more light the plant gets. Sooner or later it sends leaves up to the surface and spreads them flat on the water.

Keeping

It wants a nutritious substrate — the bulb feeds through the roots — and moderate light for the red to show. Carbon dioxide is not required. To keep it underwater rather than on the surface, cut off every leaf that heads upwards; the plant answers with more of the low ones.

Placement

As a single specimen in the middle or the back of a large tank. Its leaves are wide and cast heavy shade, so plants that need light do not belong under it.

Propagation

Young plants appear on runners beside the bulb and can be separated once they have their own roots. In an open tank it also flowers and sets seed.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1007 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.

Nymphaea lotus 'grün'

Nymphaea lotus 'rot'

Other varieties: Nymphaea zenkeri, Nymphaea lotus Knolle, Nymphaea Zenkeri Tiger Lotus

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Castalia edulis, Castalia lotus, Castalia mystica, Castalia pubescens, Castalia sacra, Castalia thermalis, Leuconymphaea lotus, Nymphaea acutidens, Nymphaea aegyptiaca, Nymphaea boucheana, Nymphaea coteka, Nymphaea dentata, Nymphaea edulis, Nymphaea esculenta, Nymphaea fragrantissima, Nymphaea hypotricha, Nymphaea leucantha, Nymphaea liberiensis, Nymphaea lotus thermalis, Nymphaea lotus dentata, Nymphaea lotus aegyptia, Nymphaea lotus grandiflora, Nymphaea lotus monstrosa, Nymphaea lotus ortgiesiana, Nymphaea ortgiesiana, Nymphaea reichardiana, Nymphaea sagittata, Nymphaea thermalis, Nymphaea zenkeri, Nymphaea omarana, Nymphaea ortgiesiano-rubra
Nymphaea lotus: L.
Family: Nymphaeaceae
Conservation status: LC

Tiger Lotus

Tank conditions

Care and keeping