Jungle Val

Vallisneria americana

Long ribbon leaves that rise from the bottom and lie along the surface, the classic green backdrop of a big aquarium. It spreads by runners and fills a back wall on its own, without carbon dioxide or special care.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 10 – 100 cm (3.9 – 39 in)
Temperature: 20 – 28 °C (68 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
pH: 6 – 8.5
General hardness: 4 – 18 °dGH
Propagation: runners
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Narrow ribbon-like leaves about a centimetre wide grow straight from a rosette at the bottom. Height depends on the tank: from 10 cm in a shallow one to a metre in a deep one, where the leaves reach the surface and float along it.

Keeping

Hardy and forgiving of dim light. It feeds mostly through the roots, so it wants a nutritious substrate and rewards a root tablet. It dislikes sudden changes: after a move or a big shift in the water the leaves may melt away, and then grow back from the base if the plant is left alone.

Placement

Along the back and the side walls. The leaves are narrow and cast little shade, so plants in front of it still get their light. In a small tank it is out of place — it will cover the surface within weeks.

Propagation

By runners: a thin shoot creeps under the substrate and a new rosette appears a few centimetres away. Once it has three or four leaves of its own, the runner can be cut and the young plant moved.

Water conditions match

The water suits 999 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.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis, Vallisneria neotropicalis, Vallisneria americana 'Natans'

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Vallisneria americana americana, Vallisneria asiatica, Vallisneria neotropicalis, Vallisneria spiralis americana, Vallisneria spiralis asiatica
Family: Hydrocharitaceae
Conservation status: LC

Jungle Val

Tank conditions

Care and keeping