“Azolla Cristata” Is The Best Live Floating Plants For Betta Fish Tank – Another exotic tropical aquarium plant comes from the Azollaceae family (algae fern family), their name is Azolla Cristata. They are small freshwater aquatic ferns.
These tropical aquatic plants originate from America. They can be found in eastern North America. They also can be found in southeastern Mexico and northern Argentina, and Uruguay.
The A. Cristata has also been known as Carolina Azolla, Carolina Mosquitofern, Small Algae Fern, Fairy Moss, or Water Velvet.
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“Azolla Cristata” Is The Best Live Floating Plants For Betta Fish Tank
They also mostly been known as “Azolla Carolinaniana” both in the botanical literature or in aquascaping enthusiasts world.
But, according to recent studies, the A. Caroliniana incorrectly applies to their name. The name Azolla Caroliniana is accurately used as the synonym of Azolla Filiculoides.
The valid synonym of A. Cristata is Azolla Mexicana. The American continent only has two Azolla species, and they are A. Cristata and A. Filiculoides.
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They look very similar and sometimes hard to distinguish. Nevertheless, their microscopic is actually different. It is a feature of the female spores (megaspores).
The Azolla Cristata has leaves like a scale 5-10 mm long. They have green color but can be transformed to reddish under the strong lighting and in the winter season.
Their bodies are covered with trickschomes (tiny protuberances). It makes them like a velvet appearance. These small algae fern known can be able to fix in the air. It’s called symbiotic cyanobacteria.
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“Azolla Cristata” Is The Best Live Floating Plants For Betta Fish Tank
A. Cristata is a hardy aquarium plant, and they can survive in the winter season with water temperatures of 5 ° C. In the summer season, the optimum temperature of their growth between 25 – 30 ° C.
In eastern and southern Asia, the A. Cristata be processed to bio-fertilizer, they valued for their nitrogen-fixing ability. Their ability has benefits for a rice paddy, which is the most premier food of Asian people. When these ferns have grown under the rice paddy, it can help the farmer to reduce utilization of artificial fertilizer addition.
Their thick leaves mat can suppress weed growth which can interfere with the rice growth rate. A. Cristata can be used as food for poultry or fish.
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“Azolla Cristata” Is The Best Live Floating Plants For Betta Fish Tank
In aquascaping, these tropical aquarium ferns can be kept as floating plants s and grow well in outdoor ponds.
Their propagate is by division or separation of daughter plants and plant them into the aquarium’s water surface. They will grow optimally under high lighting. Adding regularly aquarium fertilizer and injection CO2 will help them grow optimally. Commonly under that conditions, their leaves will turn become reddish.
These aquarium floating plants most suitable for a small tank such as a nano betta cube tank. These floating aquatic plants can make a shady area which tends to prefer by the general betta fish species.
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“Azolla Cristata” Is The Best Live Floating Plants For Betta Fish Tank
It another differentiation of A. Cristata and A. Filiculoides:
A. Cristata has hair on the top floating leaf consists of two, less often three (use microscope). Their sprouts are denser and lie flat on the water. They have floating leaves upper lobe almost pointed with a narrow and colorless skin edge (use a magnifying glass)
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While A. Filiculoides has hair on the top of the floating leaves consists of 1 cell (use microscope). Their shoots grow loosely, and the tips of the shoots mostly stand out above the water surface. Their floating leaves upper love blunt with a relatively broad and colorless skin edge (use a magnifying glass).
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Plant Profile:
- Major group: Monilophytes (Ferns)
- Order: Salviniales (Floating Fern-like)
- Family: Azollaceae (Algae Fern Family)
- Genus: Azolla
- Botanical Name: Azólla cristáta Kaulf
- Common Name: Fairy Moss, Small Algae Fern, Carolina Azolla, Carolina Mosquitofern, Water Velvet
- Synonyms Name: Azolla Mexicana C. Presl, Azolla caroliniana auct. non-Willd
- Origin: Eastern North America, Southeastern Mexico, Northern Argentina, and Uruguay
- Difficulty: Easy
- Growth: Fast
- Lighting Needs: Medium – High
- Temperature Tolerance: 5 – 35° C
- Optimum Temperature: 18 – 30°C
- Carbonate Hardness: 0 – 12° dKH
- pH: 5 – 8
- Carbon Dioxide: 0 – 40 mg/l
- Nitrate: 10-50 mg/l
- Phosphate: 0.1-3 mg/l
- Potassium: 5-30 mg/l
- Iron: 0.01-0.5 mg/l
- Propagation: Division, Breaking Apart (By Itself), Separation Of Daughter Plants
- Plant Type: Fern, Floating Plants
- Can grow emersed?: Yes
- Suitable for Beginners: Yes
- Availability: Available In Trade
- Potioning In Aquarium: Water Surface
