Bladderwort Carpet

Utricularia graminifolia

A carpet plant that is also a carnivore: on its roots sit tiny bladders that catch water fleas. It makes one of the finest green lawns in the hobby and is famously tricky to establish.

Light: medium
Difficulty: difficult
Height: 3 – 10 cm (1.2 – 3.9 in)
Temperature: 16 – 28 °C (61 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: medium
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 12 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: nano tank, foreground +1 nano tank, foreground, carpet
Propagation: runners, division +1 runners, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Thin grass-like leaves 3–10 cm tall grow from creeping stems and knit into a dense mat. The traps are minute and invisible without a lens — the plant looks simply like fine grass.

Keeping

Difficult, and the trouble is the start: the mat lifts off the substrate before it roots, and any layer of dirt on it finishes the job. It wants soft, slightly acidic water, decent light and carbon dioxide. Once established it grows steadily and asks for little.

Placement

The front of the tank, in small pieces pressed into the substrate a couple of centimetres apart. Fits a nano tank whole.

Propagation

By creeping stems: the mat spreads itself. Cut a piece with tweezers and press it in elsewhere.

Water conditions match

The water suits 835 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: Utricularia graminifolia 1 2 GROW, Utricularia graminifolia in Vitro XL

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Utricularia acuta, Utricularia caerulea graminifolia, Utricularia caerulea conferta, Utricularia conferta, Utricularia equiseticaulis, Utricularia parviflora, Utricularia pedicellata, Utricularia purpurascens, Utricularia subrecta, Utricularia uliginoides, Utricularia uliginosa
Utricularia graminifolia: Vahl
Family: Lentibulariaceae
Conservation status: LC

Bladderwort Carpet

Tank conditions

Care and keeping