Creeping Staurogyne

Staurogyne repens

A low, bushy plant from the Rio Cristalino in southern Amazonia, and one of the few carpets that a beginner can grow without carbon dioxide. It creeps rather than climbs, spreading sideways into a thick green mat.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 3 – 10 cm (1.2 – 3.9 in)
Temperature: 20 – 30 °C (68 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: stem plant
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 10 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, nano tank +2 midground, nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners, cuttings +2 runners, cuttings, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Small spade-shaped leaves of a light, fresh green sit on short stems 3 to 10 cm tall. The habit is compact and branching, closer to a cushion than to a stem plant.

Keeping

Hardy and forgiving: it holds up in soft and hard water and grows in moderate light, only becoming denser and lower when light and nutrients are generous. In dim tanks the stems stretch upwards instead of creeping.

Placement

Foreground and midground, in front of taller stems or along a hardscape edge. To start a carpet, cut off the tallest upright shoots after planting — the plant answers by sending out horizontal ones that colonise the substrate.

Propagation

Side shoots root where they touch the ground and can simply be cut away with their roots. Cuttings taken from the tips root just as easily.

Water conditions match

The water suits 839 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Butterflyfish Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid Pseudomugil paskai

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 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 Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearl Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid 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: Staurogyne Repens Variegated

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Ebermaiera repens Nees, Ebermaiera repens
Staurogyne repens: (Nees) Kuntze
Family: Acanthaceae

Creeping Staurogyne

Tank conditions

Care and keeping