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It’s time to share our finding on whether Hygrophila AngustIfolia meets our criteria of an easy-care aquatic plant. We are going to discuss, our findings on the following: How much light the plant needs, how well the plant roots itself into different substrates, if it needs fertiliser and of course discuss this plant looks!

#1: Your First Impressions – Appearance

Hygrophila AngustIfolia, definitely tops the charts when it comes to looks. It has nice big sword type shaped leaves, with an awesome dense deep green to them.

It has a nice thick dark stem that really adds some contrast to this plant. Not to mention it comes in the Pot at a decent size too! Approximately 5inch in size.

One thing to note, when this plant arrives from the supplier, the leaves are rounder. However, after a week or so the leaves changed shape to more of a sword look. This suggest that this plant was grown immersed (out of water). Don’t be alarmed though. We didn’t have any issue with this plant at all. It transitioned very well.

Anyways, back to its looks. This plant grows nice and tall (12inches we got ours too) and bushy. It would be perfect for a centre peace.

Overall, this plant gets a Whopping 9/10 on looks!

#2: How well did this plant do under different light conditions?

We tested this amazing plant under 3 different light settings in the same ESTABLISHED aquarium. The aquarium had Colombo flora base substrate, capped with black sand and a Fluval Aquasky light and was dosed once per week with Colombo Flora grow liquid fertaliser. This is our standard platform to use. We use this set up for all our plants at Aquatails

• Low light for one week – Sadly, our findings under a low light setting for 6.5 hours a day in a reasonable lit room, weren’t great. By the end of the week, the bottom of the plant started to die as the light just was not able to get to it, due to its big leaves. Overall, DO NOT BUY THIS PLANT IF YOU HAVE A DARK AQUARIUM.

• Medium Light setting for one week – We had better results with this setting, the plant grew, the leaves begun to thin (during its transition), and overall, the plant looked healthy still. We had the same set up as used in the low lights, accept we increased the light intensity. We found the bottom of the plant stretched itself out, this was expected as the plant will almost get a little lanky, due to reduced light. The plant did lose some of its bushiness, but all in all remained healthy. Overall, this plant did survive its medium light, and I believe it would be ok too. However, it did lose its bushiness slightly towards the bottom of the plant.

• High Light setting for one week – This was the optimal setting for this plant. Within a week the plant increased in hight along with how bushy it became. The leaves thinned into a beautiful sword light shape, and it’s amazing deep green begun to flourish. We set the Fluval Aquasky to full power for 6.5 hours each day. The tank had Colombo Flora Base as the substrate, capped with sand and the tank was dosed with Flora Grow liquid fertiliser once. For us, it was clear, for optimum results this plant lights a good amount of light.

#3: Pros and Cons

#4: The Final Score

5 STARS

We have given this plant 5 stars. Its super robust, and in our opinion is one of the top choices for beginners and also experienced plant keepers. This plant really does have it all. It is stunning to look at, easy to keep and fish absolutely love it.

Thanks to its large leaves, small fish and fry can feed from it, fish feel safe in this plant, and it does a great job at keeping the waters nitrates down!

Remember this plant, will require a good amount of light, we suggest planting it in fine gravel/sand as a minimum. However, like all plants an active substrate is much better. Using liquid fertaliser at least once per week, will help keep this plant in tip top shape.

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