Pondweed

Potamogeton gayi

Thin soft stems with narrow leaves, green to orange-brown depending on the light. It spreads by runners across the substrate and grows fast in almost any water.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Temperature: 4 – 28 °C (39 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green, bronze or brown
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: runners, cuttings
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Narrow ribbon leaves along slim upright stems that rise from creeping runners. Under strong light the stems take on an orange-brown cast; in dim light the plant stays green.

Keeping

Easy: it tolerates a wide range of hardness and cool water, does not ask for much feeding and needs no carbon dioxide. The catch is its speed — it grows prolifically and needs regular pruning, or it fills the back of the tank.

Placement

The middle or back of a medium to large tank. The fine leaves move with the current and read as a soft screen rather than a wall.

Propagation

By runners, which spread on their own, and by cuttings of the upright stems.

Water conditions match

The water suits 977 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: Potamogeton gayi Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Potamogeton burkartii
Potamogeton gayi: A.Benn.
Family: Potamogetonaceae

Pondweed

Tank conditions

Care and keeping