Guppy Grass Care Guide: Create an Underwater Jungle Aquarium

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Guppy Grass Aquarium

Guppy grass is the plant that will enchant any freshwater aquarium. This plant is worth growing because it is easy to grow and has low maintenance. We make it even easier for you. In this guide, we share information from our own experience and research.

Our Care Guide has all you should know if you plan to grow this plant in your tank. You will see how easy it is, and you will love it once you learn more about it. It can grow with less effort and fewer expenses in your tank. We have also made a list of the ideal tankmates, and let me say that the benefits that you get from this aquarium plant are amazing. 

Overview 

Guppy grass is also known as Najas Grass, but most people refer to it as guppy since was used by many breeders of guppy, other fish, and shrimps. The plant is a very easy one to grow, and it does not require a lot of maintenance. It works great for beginners and is very famous among aquarium enthusiasts. Guppy grass can easily take over your fish tank, but you can also trim it and keep it in control. 

Guppy Grass Aquarium Plant

You can keep Guppy grass as a flooding plant or attach it at substrate. Why not both ?

The leaves of Guppy grass look different if you plant it in the substrate, although it grows great floating in the tank. It has green leaves that grow thin, in large thin branches. Its roots are like cotton threads, and when starting to grow, they tend to reach the substrate and find nutrients. This plant will create a great “forest” and foreground for small fish to hide, and play, and also a great place for them to breed.

Care difficultyVery Easy
Flowering seasonSummer
Flower colorGreen
HeightUp to 40 inch (1 m)
FormSpreading
Growth rateFast
Soil descriptionAdaptable, sand, loam, and clay tolerant
Humidity0.85 – 40.68 inch
LightningLow to moderate
pH6.0 – 8.0
GH2 – 20
Temperature20 – 26 °C (68 – 79 °F)
PropagationClip of the stems

Origin & Natural Habitat

Guppy grass, also known as Najas Guadalupensis, originates from America. This plant is native to Central Canada, founded in the United States, Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, and even South America. With its wide distribution, this plant is neutralized in Israel, Palestine, and Japan.

This plant is annual and mainly grows submerged in its natural habitat. Its favorite habitat is ponds, ditches, and streams, where this plant thrives and takes over the place. It makes a great place to hide and breed various wild fish, creating so a great environment for invertebrates and other species. 

Benefits of Guppy Grass

Guppy grass is an amazing aquarium plant to start with. In case this plant is new to you, and you haven’t heard about it or either you don’t know much about it, here are some benefits of this plant that may work great for your fish tank. If you are looking forward to purchasing a plant for your tank but don’t know what to choose, take a look at the Guppy grass benefits:

  • It is very easy to grow.
  • Has a fast growth rate and can be easily trimmed.
  • Removes toxins: It is a great toxin remover, ensuring quality water.
  • Keeps clear water: reduces ammonia and other coverage, leaving no space for algae growth.
  • Provides great foregrounds and places to breed and hide for guppies, invertebrates, and other species.
  • Food resource: it provides food to herbivore species.
  • Oxygenation: It oxygenates the tank.
Guppy Grass Plant

Guppy grass oxygenates the water column and creates the pearling phenomena. It gives your aquarium a amazing look.

How to Plant It: Growth & Care Tips

Guppy grass is easy to grow and maintain. Since it can be planted submerged, it’s all up to you how you choose it to grow, float, or root. You can either just put the plant in the tank, float it, and let it thrive. Or either attach a piece of it to the substrate (not the stems, though, go for the roots, they look like cotton threads).

If the plant is propagated and does not have roots yet, the stems should be divided and rooted 2 inches (5 cm) deep on the substrate. After this, all you need to do is let it thrive and fertilize it if the substrate doesn’t have enough nutrients. 

Guppu Grass Planting

A simple piece of Guppy grass can turn into a forest.

Taking care of this plant is very easy, except for the nutrients, and you have to make sure the tank is not dried out. There is no other requirement about this plant. As for its growth, it is important to control its size and trim it when taking over the tank. Therefore, you should consider that when this plant turns reddish, the lightning is too high, and the plant might burn. Make sure to keep low to moderate lighting and the plant will do fine.

This plant can tolerate high temperatures from 68 to 86 degrees F, so, no need to worry about that. Therefore, when sharing the tank with other fish, this plant will have much to feed, especially when keeping fish with a protein-based diet or in shrimp tanks.

Placement and Substrate

This plant can be kept in any part of the tank. You can either plant it in a substrate or let it float near the water column. The substrate is not important since Guppy grass can easily feed on nutrients in the water column. Although it is important only if you do not use fertilizers, the roots will tend to reach for the substrate. If you do so, the plant will do just fine.

Tank Requirements & Maintenance

Guppy grass is the easiest plant to grow, which means you don’t need to worry about loads of requirements in order to keep it in your tank. This plant works great in almost any sized tank, low-light aquariums, and even in high temperatures. It is a great plant that will help baby guppies grow, and why not clean your tank from coverage since it tends to feed with loads of nutrients?

Guppy Grass Forest Aquarium

That’s how Guppy grass can be turned into a forest if you don’t trim it.

You can maintain this plant with less effort; a simple plant LED lightning would be enough for it. There is no need to purchase expensive ones. If you have weak lightning, you can simply let it float, and it will take care of itself by reaching the light.

The substrate is not as important as when keeping other aqua plants. Guppy grass will find its way to get nutrients, and if not substrate, it will thrive greatly while floating. Although, if you’re busy and won’t fertilize this plant often, a substrate is recommended in order to provide proper amounts of nutrients to grow.

When purchasing this plant to your tank, you should consider sanitizing it since it can contain unwanted pests. Here is a list of what you need about it in order to not harm your fish or plants:

  • Unscented Bleach
  • Gloves
  • Two Buckets
  • Water Dechlorinator

Tank Size & Fertilizer

Guppy grass can be kept in any tank size, even in a nano aquarium. A min of 10 gallons of water tank is recommended since this plant can thrive and grow fast. When sharing the tank with other plants or fishes, it is suggested to use a bigger tank and keep its control by trimming it. Liquid fertilizers are required for this plant since it consumes loads of nutrients.

Water Parameters

The optimal temperature for grumpy grass ranges from 20 – 26 °C (68 – 79 °F), and as we said earlier, it can tolerate various temperature ranges. The pH level should be maintained between 6.0 – 8.0. The water hardness ranges between 2 – 20 GH would be great, although this plant has a high tolerance to soft and hard water, that’s why this won’t be a problem for it. A low water flow would be great for this plant and also for your aquarium since it will not make a mess or clog the filters.

Lighting & CO2

Guppy grass does not require high lighting or direct exposure to the sunlight, but yet, low to moderate lightning would be more than enough for it to grow fast. The lights should be kept at a range of 8-12h per day. The high lighting can change the color of this plant into reddish until it burns. When the lightning is moderate, the color of this plant gets greener. Therefore, CO2 is not required for this plant, but a low level could do great if they’re struggling.

Propagation

When it comes to propagating Guppy grass, there is no big deal. You can just tear the plant since it is very messy. Divide the stems, and just throw them in another tank, and it is ready to grow. It is very easy to propagate this plant since you can root it or either let it flow. You can root the stems into the substrate or let them flow, and the plant will thrive great. 

Tank Mates & Design Ideas

This amazing plant is a great choice for your freshwater aquarium, and especially for Guppies. Although, it is the perfect choice for many other community tanks, including:

  • Small freshwater fish: Pygmy Cory Catfish, Otocinclus Catfish, Neon tetra, Ember tetra, Green fire tetra, Cardinalfish, Platies, Celestial Pearl danios, 
  • Shrimps: Dwarf shrimps like Blue Velvet Shrimp, Red Cherry Shrimp, Snowball Shrimp, Caridina cf. Babaulti, Crystal Red Shrimp, Blue Tiger Shrimp, Ghost shrimp, etc., would love to share their tank with this plant.
  • Snails are also great tankmates for this Plant

Guppy grass works great with other plants, such as Christmas Moss, since they have similarities in maintenance. Although, other hard plants should be avoided.

Guppy Grass Tank Mates

Shrimps and small fish are ideal tank mates for Guppy grass.

As for designing, Guppy grass grows tall and has a bushy appearance. You can let it float near the water columns for a floating aquascape and keep it in control by trimming it not to take over the tank. This would be a great idea for guppies and other fish to hide and play around with.

Another design idea is to root it in the substrate and let it grow vertically. Trimming would also perfect the design to control its growth depending on your tank size. The designs will enchant the tank with their colors based on the lightning. Light green color under low lightning, dark green under moderate light, and reddish under high light.

Conclusion

If you want to keep other plants with Guppy Grass, you should be careful because it will consume all the nutrients of the tank, and it would be a big turndown for other plants. This plant doesn’t need to be fed any special requirements, it has low maintenance, and that’s what makes this plant great for beginners, yet, a beautiful plant for large tanks that provides places to hide and breed guppies and shrimps.

If you put this plant with tankmates, such as peaceful fish and plants that produce lots of coverage, this plant will grow faster and take over the tank. It is also very easy to propagate. 

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I am Mario, a experienced fish keepr and the editor-in-chief of Epic Aquarium.

At Epic Aquarium, we take our commitment to providing comprehensive and unbiased reviews very seriously. Our team carefully reviews each product, and we only recommend the very best in terms of quality. We also consult with leading fish keeper experts to ensure that each article is based on the most reliable and up-to-date information available.

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