Lizard's Tail

Saururus cernuus

A North American marsh plant with heart-shaped leaves that has been grown in aquariums since the days of the Dutch layouts. Under water it stays much smaller and neater than on land.

Light: high
Difficulty: medium
Temperature: 4 – 27 °C (39 – 81 °F)

Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: slow
pH: 6 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 5 – 15 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: semi-emersed, midground +1 semi-emersed, midground, foreground
Propagation: runners, cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Heart-shaped leaves set alternately on upright stems. The submerged form is compact and low; the same plant grown above water becomes tall and coarse and flowers on a long drooping spike, which is where the name comes from.

Keeping

Moderate demands and slow growth. Strong light and carbon dioxide give the biggest leaves and the fastest growth; feeding through the water helps. It also takes cool water and is often sold as a pond plant, which is worth knowing when it is hard to find in an aquarium shop.

Placement

The front or middle of the tank, in a group, and on the bank of a paludarium.

Propagation

By runners under the substrate, and by cuttings of the upright stems.

Water conditions match

The water suits 955 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 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: Saururus cernuus Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Mattuschkia aquatica, Neobiondia silvestrii, Saururus cernuus submersus, Saururus lucidus
Saururus cernuus: L.
Family: Saururaceae
Conservation status: LC

Lizard's Tail

Tank conditions

Care and keeping