Dwarf Rotala

Rotala rotundifolia

A fast stem plant from South and East Asia, and the usual first choice for anyone who wants red in the aquarium. The round leaves of its name belong to the marsh form; under water the leaves are narrow and turn from green to orange and crimson as the light gets stronger.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Height: 20 – 80 cm (7.9 – 31 in)
Temperature: 4 – 32 °C (39 – 90 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 4 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 2 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, red accent
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Slender stems grow 20 to 80 cm tall with leaves a few centimetres long. Colour is the point of this plant and it is set almost entirely by light: in a dim tank the whole bush stays plain green.

Keeping

Undemanding by the standards of red stem plants — it grows in a wide range of water and will do without added carbon dioxide, though the colour then stays muted. It readily throws side shoots and thickens, which is both its charm and its problem: the bush shades its own lower leaves and needs pruning every few weeks.

Placement

A background hedge or a midground accent. Planted in a line it makes the red street of a Dutch-style layout; a single group works as a spot of colour against green.

Propagation

Cut a stem, strip the lowest leaves and push the cutting into the substrate. The parent stem branches at the cut, so trimming both propagates the plant and makes it bushier.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1008 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.

Rotala rotundifolia 'Ceylon'

Rotala rotundifolia 'Colorata'

Rotala rotundifolia 'Green'

Rotala rotundifolia 'H'Ra' ('Gia Lai')

Other varieties: Rotala rotundifolia 'Blood Red', Rotala rotundifolia 'H'ra', Rotala rotundifolia Gia Lai HRa, Rotala rotundifolia Orange Juice, Rotala rotundifolia Periya, Rotala rotundifolia Shimoga, Rotala rotundifolia Pink, Rotala rotundifolia Laos, Rotala rotundifolia Singapore Blood Red, Rotala rotundifolia Hong Kong, Rotala rotundifolia Myanmar, Rotala Rotundifolia Manipurensis, Rotala Rotundifolia Red, Rotala Rotundifolia PLATINUM, Rotala sp. 'Pink', Rotala sp. 'Colorata', Rotala sp. 'Green'

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Rotala sp., Ameletia rotundifolia, Ameletia subspicata, Ammannia rotundifolia, Ammannia subspicata, Mirkooa rotundifolia, Rotala rotundifolia
Rotala rotundifolia: (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Koehne
Family: Lythraceae
Conservation status: LC

Dwarf Rotala

Tank conditions

Care and keeping