Blyxa japonica

Blyxa Japonica is a very popular aquatic plant in aquascaping. This plant is virtually irreplaceable if you need to design an aquascape with thicket-like areas made of rosette of leaves. By taking a look at the picture of this plant in the aquarium you might think that Blyxa Japonica is a typical rosette. But Blyxa is actually a stem plant; leaves on the stem are located very close to each other with short internodes, giving the impression of a thick bush. Such structure introduces certain features in terms of taking care of Blyxa rosettes. Even though its dense rosettes are not tall (up to 15 cm), but the fact that stem of Blyxa is slowly but constantly grows means that the base of “rosette” will get taller, as a result leaving a massive Blyxa stem without leaves and creating an empty space beneath the rosette. Therefore it’s necessary from time to time cut off the lower part of the stem and plant rosette again in the aquarium substrate.

Blyxa Japonica is a midground plant, but it’s also often used as a background plant in aquascapes with mostly short plants, for example Iwagumi.

The leaves of Blyxa Japonica grow up to 10 cm in length and 3-4 mm in width. The color may vary from green to golden-red. The higher level of lighting, the more reddish hue Blyxa gets. However if there’s not enough iron Blyxa Japonica remains green even with the light of 1 W/L. Blyxa should not be considered as the plant for an aquarium with a high levels of lighting. It’s much easier to find a good position for Blyxa that has a green hue in aquascape. Therefore, Blyxa is a good candidate for a slow aquascape that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance.

Blyxa Japonica belongs to the group of aquarium plants of medium difficulty. This plant grows poorly in aquariums without СО2 and fertilizers. Although it can also be maintained without CO2 supply, yet it’s quite demanding in terms of water parameters. It prefers soft water. When planted in the water with 10 degrees of hardness or higher it roots will rot and Blyxa will float to the surface of the water. But, despite this, it may very well start flowering near the water’s surface.