Growing Congo Anubias (Anubias Heterophylla) In The Aquarium

This is a mud plant. Its natural habitat is wetlands of the tropical African forests in Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola. This species has thick and short rhizome with rosulate leaves. These leaves have long leaf stems. The leaf blades are hard, bottle green with waxy luster and variable shape. This shape can be from oval, lanceolate to sagittate. These leaves also can be smooth or slightly undulating. This plant grows slowly but it can reach a considerable size, so it should be planted only in large aquariums in the middle or at the back. We can't cover up the rhizome with a substrate. We must only cover roots of the plant. Otherwise the rhizome will be rotted. We can arrange the species on the decorative elements – stones, rocks, roots. We can do this with help of the fishing line, sewing thread or rubber band. We may use this plant for aquarium with herbivore fish. It is hardy and undemanding species. It doesn't need strong light and additional fertilization. This is spermatophyte plant but white flowers only grow above the water surface. In aquarium we reproduce it vegetatively – by dividing the rhizome. Each seedlings must have minimum 3 leaves.