Asian Watermoss

Salvinia cucullata

A floating fern with small cupped leaves that hold air like tiny bowls. It has no long roots, so it shades a tank without curtaining it off.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Temperature: 18 – 32 °C (64 – 90 °F)

Plant type: floating
Growth rate: very fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
Placement: surface
Propagation: fragmentation, division +1 fragmentation, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Round leaves the size of a coin curl upwards into little cups, covered in water-repellent hairs. Beneath there is almost nothing — this fern has no proper roots.

Keeping

Undemanding and very fast: it forms a dense mat and shuts out light below, so it needs thinning every week. It does not like water dripping on its leaves, so an open tank suits it better than a closed one.

Placement

On the surface. Because it has no trailing roots it is a good choice where the roots of other floaters would get in the way.

Propagation

By itself: the plant splits into pieces and each grows on.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1042 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 Featherfin Synodontis 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

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 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

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Salvinia cucullata: Roxb.
Family: Salviniaceae
Conservation status: LC