Common Name: Radican Sword
Radican Sword plants offer excellent and attractive coverage to the background of an aquascape. These plants have short stems and long, ovoid leaves that are bright green in color and somewhat transparent, with prominent veins. The leaves’ translucency catches the light beautifully. Radican sword plants are great for community fish tanks as they will tolerate a range of water parameters. Radican swords grow quickly, which can be helpful if you wish to fill in a background or mid-ground area of a tank.
With a nutrient rich substrate these plants will tolerate most lighting conditions, but moderate to high lighting is ideal. CO2 injection is not necessary but will help the plant grow even faster if needed. Radican sword plants grow in a rosette formation and can get rather large so they need to be pruned regularly in a small tank. They can be great plants for large size tanks, and will grow either submersed or emersed. Emersed plants produce tiny white flowers, and even submersed plants can occasionally send out a flowering shoot.
Radican sword plants propagate through side shoots off of their rhizome, which can be trimmed and replanted into the substrate. To control the size of your Radican sword plant you can remove the side shoots and older leaves.
Notes:
- Echinodorus is a very hardy species of aquatic plants. Most Echinodorus require nutrient-dense soil to thrive as they are heavy root feeders.
- Echinodorus grow fairly large and are more suitable for larger planted aquariums.
- Do not make drastic changes to the aquarium. Unstable parameters will result in melt and rotting of the aquarium plant.
- Please be sure to remove this plant from its pot. Remove the cotton surrounding the roots and plant into a quality substrate. For instructions on how to properly prep “potted” aquarium plants, click here.
- CO2 injection and quality aquarium soil will yield better growth.
- Please research appropriately to ensure your plant thrives.
Family Name: Alismataceae
Origin: South America
Height: 12-20”
pH: 6.0-7.5
Care: Easy
Light: Moderate
Co2: Not necessary
Propagation: Adventitious shoots
Growth rate: Fast