Mexican Oak Leaf

Shinnersia rivularis

Leaves shaped like an oak leaf on a fast-growing stem — an unusual outline for an aquarium plant. It grows very quickly and prefers water on the cool side.

Light: medium
Difficulty: medium
Height: 10 – 30 cm (3.9 – 12 in)
Temperature: 4 – 32 °C (39 – 90 °F)

Leaf colour: green, white markings
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: very fast
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background
Propagation: cuttings
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Lobed leaves in pairs along an upright stem 10–30 cm tall, light green; there is also a form with white veins. Single stems look leggy — the plant is meant to be grown in a group.

Keeping

Moderate demands and very fast growth: it reaches the surface quickly and is simply pinched back, with the tops replanted. Medium light is enough and carbon dioxide helps. Warm water is what it likes least, so it suits a room-temperature tank better than a tropical one.

Placement

The back of the tank, several stems together. Its speed makes it useful in a new tank, where it takes up nutrients before algae can.

Propagation

By cuttings: pinch off the tops and plant them back.

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.

Other varieties: Shinnersia rivularis 'Weiß-Grün', Shinnersia rivularis ’Weiss-Grün’, Shinnersia rivularis Weiss Gruen, Shinnersia rivularis Weiss Gruen Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Trichocoronis rivularis
Shinnersia rivularis: (A.Gray) R.M.King & H.Rob.
Family: Asteraceae

Mexican Oak Leaf

Tank conditions

Care and keeping