Tape Grass

Vallisneria spiralis

Ribbon leaves rising in a curtain from the substrate — the plant behind the classic jungle aquarium. It grows in warm and cool water across the tropics and subtropics, and is about as close to unkillable as an aquarium plant gets.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 20 – 50 cm (7.9 – 20 in)
Temperature: 5 – 30 °C (41 – 86 °F)

Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: fast
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: medium – high
pH: 6 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background
Propagation: runners
Grows emersed: no

Appearance

Narrow, strap-shaped leaves grow from a rosette and reach 20 to 50 cm, often running along the surface once they hit the top. The leaves are thin enough not to shade the plants below them.

Keeping

Grows in almost any light and any water, warm or cool, with or without added carbon dioxide. It feeds mainly through the roots, so a deep substrate matters more than fertiliser in the water. One weakness is worth knowing: it reacts badly to salt and to some algaecides.

Placement

Background and corners, where the curtain of leaves hides equipment. Leave room — runners travel, and a single plant becomes a stand within a couple of months.

Propagation

Runners creep under the substrate and send up new rosettes. Let a daughter root properly before cutting the connecting runner.

Water conditions match

The water suits 983 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 spiralis 'Tiger', Vallisneria spiralis 'Tortifolia', Vallisneria Spiralis Leopard, Vallisneria spiralis "Contortionist", Vallisneria spiralis "Torta"

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Vallisneria spiralis L. forma tortifolia Wendt, Vallisneria aethiopica, Vallisneria jacquiniana, Vallisneria jacquinii, Vallisneria linnet, Vallisneria micheliana, Vallisneria michelii, Vallisneria numidica, Vallisneria pusilla, Vallisneria spiralis aethiopica, Vallisneria spiralis numidica, Vallisneria spiralis pusilla
Vallisneria spiralis: L.
Family: Hydrocharitaceae
Conservation status: LC

Tape Grass

Tank conditions

Care and keeping