Growing Baby-Tears (Micranthemum Umbrosum) In The Aquarium

This is a semi-aquatic species. Its natural habitats are small ponds, ditches, streams and swamps in the US (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas).

The plant has small, green, almost oval and soft leaves with entired margins. These leaves are arranged in pairs opposite each other. They develop at the nodes and successive pairs of the leaves at right angles to each other. The species has also long stems with square, 1-2 mm cross-section. The root system is extensive and branched.

It should be planted in a big aquarium in the middle section. This plant needs systematic cutting in too small of a tank. It grows very quickly and it is expansive towards other plants. We may arrange it in small clumps, as lawns or in gaps of the decorative elements; roots or driftwoods. This plant develops side shoots. It is often used in Dutch style aquascape.

It needs strong light; about 0.6 W per litre. When bottom leaves of the plant start to fall and the stems are fragile and they bend toward the lighting then we have too low of light. We don't need additional carbon dioxide fertilization but it is recommended during the reproduction. The plant prefers water with pH=5.5-8.0.

This is spermatophyte species but it zygomorphic flowers develop only above the water surface. In aquarium we reproduce it vegetatively; by seedlings from cut stems or by the shoots. Then we should cut the stem or shoot above the leaf node and we plant it in the substrate; even several seedlings together. Next seedlings should be planted at distance of a few centimeters.