Ambulia: types and contents in the aquarium

Water limnophila - a tropical plant that prefers the natural ponds and swamps of Southeast Asia. At home, it is considered a weed that is mercilessly destroyed to protect rice fields from it. But not so long ago, the ambulia began to be kept in home aquariums due to its amazing external characteristics and useful properties.

Since they began to engage in the cultivation of a water flower relatively recently - only 30 years ago, the aquarium culture was appreciated by many. Its popularity is due to the unpretentiousness of the plant. Despite this, you need to know the basic requirements for ambulia care, so that the plant remains healthy, beautiful and periodically blossoms.

Three varieties of equatorial vegetation are most suitable for aquarium breeding:

• water (or royal) ambulia - Limnophila aquatica;
• fragrant - Limnophila aromatica;
• sitting flowered - Limnophila sessiliflora.

Today in the world there are 35 species of limnophiles, but most of them are not suitable for aquariums. This is due to the fact that the content of representatives of the tropical flora in an artificial reservoir is of a certain complexity. In particular, this applies to the Indian species of the plant Limnophila indica. If leaflets or stems are damaged, ambulia releases poison, which can lead to the death of other aquarium inhabitants.

The aquarium plant Royal Ambulia (Limnophila aquatica) is distinguished by a lush spherical crown formed by numerous densely growing leaves deeply dissected at the edges. They are narrow, extremely soft and tender, have lamellar morphology, due to the longitudinal division of cells on one node of the axial organ of the plant (leaf bud sinus), up to 10–13 leaves can be located.

The stem is long and rather thick, about 6 mm in diameter, but it is difficult to see due to the abundance of dense green mass, which it supports in an upright position. At home, this species will need a sufficient amount of water, because limnophile grows up to 0.5 m tall, but in the wild it can reach 1 m. For this reason, its other name is giant.

The spherical top of the plant with curly curls of greenery is large and forms a circle of 12 cm. In addition to its magnificent decorative appearance, it has a beneficial effect on the microenvironment of the aquarium due to the filtering function.

A feature of ambulia is her amazing regime, which includes hours of sleep and wakefulness. Closer to 9 o’clock in the evening, the plant folds its leaves, even bright lighting cannot prevent it in this. A “sleeping beauty" wakes up in the morning, dissolving her luxurious emerald green crown.

Ambulia in an aquarium can feel comfortable if a number of requirements are met.

• An exotic plant needs a lot of light, so daylight hours should be 10-12 hours. When there is insufficient lighting, the stalks can stretch a lot.
• The preferred water temperature is 23–28 degrees, lower parameters delay the growth of grass.
• The soil can be fine gravel, pebbles or sand with a small amount of clay for the development of the root system. Soil requires constant cleaning of various growths and silt.
• Limnophile feels good in clean water, so you should install a filtration system and additionally carry out a water change once a week.

The royal limnophile is propagated, sharing the roots, which first have to be carefully untangled, and then planted. You can do this with cuttings - they are cut at a distance of 20 cm from the top of the plant. Children need to be planted 3 cm from other bushes.

The plant is also called dwarf ambulia. The grass has a straight and tall stalk with reddish and green leaves resembling feathers. When it grows to the surface, a large number of young twigs depart from it, densely streaming the expanse of water. Thus, the plant can grow both under water and above it. With good care, limnophile forms beautiful white flowers. Dimensions of an adult plant: width - from 4 to 7 cm, height - from 15 to 40 cm.

Conditions necessary for the normal functioning of tropical grass:

• warm water: not lower than 18 and not higher than 30 degrees;
• the plant does not have the ability to grow on stones, therefore it is better to place sand from 6 to 10 cm thick at the bottom, and if the soil contains iron, then the shade of the leaves is likely to be reddish;
• in the case of dwarf ambulia, the small presence of sludge does not play a role, moreover, it is used as a nutritional supplement;
• the optimum acidity of the medium is 5–8 units, despite the fact that the stiffness can be different - from 0 to 20 units.

The sessile-flowered variety is not very demanding on lighting, but with prolonged meager light it looks faded and not so attractive.It is very easy to damage the delicate and extremely vulnerable root system of vegetation; therefore, soil clearance should be carried out with caution.

Putting things in order, periodically it is necessary to brush off the bushes of the plant, because it filters out any small particles in the water, restoring the ecological balance of the artificial reservoir.

A distinctive feature of fragrant ambulia is constant change of the growth point (every 7 cm), because of which its stem can be either erect or creeping along the bottom. The size of the bushes in diameter reaches 17 cm. The leaves have a different color scheme: from salad green to brown, their lower side is often lilac. The shape of the leaflets is pointed to the tip, they are all the same length. In one whorl, there are about 8 pieces.

The leaves acquire a purple tone when they are in the surface of the aquarium, and their shape becomes more rounded - this may be a sign that flowers will appear soon.

Required parameters:

• rigidity - within 3–14 units;
• acidity values ​​- from 5.5 to 7 units;
• temperature - 23–28 degrees.

At lower and higher temperatures, the growth and development of ambulia ceases, and the composition largely affects the color of the leaves. Water needs to be constantly cleaned with filters, and also replace 1/4 volume. This figure cannot be exceeded, as this can lead to undesirable changes in water parameters.

Lack of light (less than 10-13 hours per day) causes pallor of leaves. With good lighting with 0.8 W / l lamps, the plant becomes red. Limnophile also requires top dressing with iron, phosphates, nitrates, potassium and carbon dioxide atomization, without which the normal course of photosynthesis is impossible. As for the soil, then sandstone or small pebbles are suitable for the plant, previously a mixture with a high iron content is placed at the bottom.

Aromatics need periodic pruning of the upper shoots to prevent shading of the lower leaves, leading to their decay. Ambulia should be propagated by cuttings that form the root system and begin to grow after 2-3 weeks or a little later. It is permissible to plant grass in a vegetative way. To do this, lateral stems are separated with several well-developed leaves.

An exotic plant is planted in 3, 5, and 7 bushes, because the thickets look more aesthetically pleasing than in the background or middle background, where they often have to be cut. The main rule is not to plant tightly.

For more information on the features of ambulia, see the next video.