Growing Anubias Gigantea (Anubias Gigantea) In The Aquarium

This is a mud species. Its natural habitats are wetlands, swamps, floodplains, peatlands, coasts of creeks and streams in tropical African forests (Togo, Cameroon, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast). This plant can grow up to a few meters long and it grows partially submersed or completely emerged.

This species has horizontally growing rhizome that is 3-6 cm thick with big, thick and rosulate leaves. The leaf blades are bottle green, undulating, shiny with arrow-shaped or heart-shaped that is up to 30 cm long and 15 cm wide. The leaf stems are strong, somewhat shorter than leaves.

This plant grows very slowly but it can reach a considerable size, so it should be planted in large and spacious aquariums in the middle or at the back. We may use this species of the plant for aquarium with herbivore fish. We can arrange it on the decorative elements - stones, rocks, roots - with help of the fishing line, sewing thread or rubber band. We can't cover up the rhizome with a substrate. We must only cover roots of the plant.

This is hardy and undemanding species. Its leaves often are covered with algae - especially when we use strong light. We should remove damaged and withered leaves and parts of the plant.

This is spermatophyte plant. It can bloom when it is completely submerged but then its seeds don't appear. In aquarium we reproduce this plant vegetatively - by dividing the rhizome.