Dwarf Sagittaria

Sagittaria subulata

A short grass-like plant that spreads by runners into a low green lawn. It suits a nano tank as well as a large one, and it is one of the simplest carpets to start with.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 5 – 30 cm (2 – 12 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, white markings
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 30 °dKH
Placement: background, midground +3 background, midground, nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Ribbon leaves a few millimetres wide grow in small rosettes 5–30 cm tall. In a bright tank it stays low and lawn-like; in shade the same plant can suddenly shoot up to knee height, and the usual fix is to move it to the background where the height is welcome.

Keeping

Undemanding to light and substrate: moderate light and an ordinary bottom are enough. Added carbon dioxide makes the carpet lower and denser. It occasionally sends a stem to the surface and opens small white flowers just above the water.

Placement

The front and the middle of the tank; plant single rosettes 2–4 cm apart and let them close the gaps themselves. It also works as a low green wall in a nano tank.

Propagation

By runners, plentifully: young rosettes appear next to the parent and root themselves. Cut the runner once the youngster has its own leaves, or simply let the group thicken.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1009 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.

Sagittaria subulata 'Needle'

Sagittaria subulata 'Pusilla'

Other varieties: Sagittaria subulata 'Needle Leaf', Sagittaria sp. ''Nadel-Pfeilkraut'', Sagittaria sp. ''Needle Leaf'', Sagittaria ''filifolia''

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Alisma subulatum L., Sagittaria pusilla Nuttall, Alisma subulatum, Damasonium subulatum, Echinodorus subulatus, Sagittaria lorata, Sagittaria loricata, Sagittaria natans lorata, Sagittaria natans pusilla, Sagittaria pusilla, Sagittaria subulata lorata, Sagittaria subulata pusilla, Sagittaria subulata subulata, Sagittaria subulata typica
Sagittaria subulata: (L.) Buchenau
Family: Alismataceae

Dwarf Sagittaria

Tank conditions

Care and keeping