Tonina

Paepalanthus fluviatilis

Whorls of narrow leaves on an upright stem, in a pale, almost white-green found nowhere else in a tank. One of the hardest plants in the hobby, and a badge of a well-run aquarium.

Light: high
Difficulty: very difficult
Temperature: 18 – 29 °C (64 – 84 °F)

Leaf colour: green, white markings
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 8 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Stiff narrow leaves in tight whorls up the stem, light green with white shoot tips. It grows mostly straight up and puts out side shoots only when the light is strong.

Keeping

Very difficult, and everything about it must be right at once: soft, slightly acidic water, an acidic substrate, strong light, carbon dioxide, iron and trace elements. Nitrate and phosphate must never run to zero. Faster plants around it will steal its light, so it needs room. This is a plant for someone who already keeps a stable tank.

Placement

The middle of the tank, in a group, clear of taller neighbours.

Propagation

By cuttings: cut side shoots and replant them.

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: Tonina fluviatilis, Tonina fluviatilis Ecoscape, Tonina Fluviatilis

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Eriocaulon amplexicaule, Eriocaulon sphagnoides, Hyphydra amplexicaulis, Hyphydra fluviatilis, Tonina aquatilis, Tonina fluviatilis, Tonina fluviatilis obtusifolia, Tonina fluviatilis parvifolia
Family: Eriocaulaceae

Tonina

Tank conditions

Care and keeping