Eelgrass

Vallisneria natans

Narrow ribbon leaves rising from a small rosette, spreading by runners into a stand of underwater grass. Undemanding, quick, and tolerant of cool water.

Light: medium–high
Difficulty: easy
Height: 20 – 40 cm (7.9 – 16 in)
Temperature: 4 – 28 °C (39 – 82 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
Tolerates light: medium – high
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 21 °dKH
Placement: background, midground
Propagation: runners
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Green strap leaves 20–40 cm long, narrower than those of the big vallisnerias. There is also a well-known form from Lake Biwa in Japan with spirally twisted leaves, kept in the hobby as a smaller, more delicate plant.

Keeping

Easy: it grows in a wide range of water, including cool tanks, needs no carbon dioxide and asks only for decent light. It spreads by runners across the substrate and will fill the space it is given — thinning the colony is the regular job, not feeding it.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, where the long leaves lean along the surface. Good as a green backdrop for tanks with fish that need cover.

Propagation

By runners: daughter rosettes appear beside the parent and are separated once rooted.

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: Vallisneria asiatica var. biwaensis, Vallisneria sp asiatica, Vallisneria sp asiatica Topf

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Vallisneria americana var. biwaensis (Miki) Lowden, Vallisneria biwaensis (Miki) Ohwi, Vallisneria natans var. biwaensis (Miki) H. Hara, Physkium natans Lour., Physkium natans, Vallisneria americana biwaensis, Vallisneria asiatica, Vallisneria asiatica biwaensis, Vallisneria asiatica higoensis, Vallisneria biwaensis, Vallisneria gigantea biwaensis, Vallisneria gigantea higoensis, Vallisneria higoensis, Vallisneria minor, Vallisneria natans biwaensis, Vallisneria natans higoensis, Vallisneria physkium, Vallisneria spiralis minor, Vallisneria spiralis subulispatha, Vallisneria spiraloides, Vallisneria subulispatha
Family: Hydrocharitaceae
Conservation status: LC

Eelgrass

Tank conditions

Care and keeping