Care Level: Moderately Difficult
Water Conditions: 6.5-7.2 pH and Soft to Moderately Hard
Lighting Requirements: Medium
Temperature: 70 to 80 °F (21-27°C)
Maximum Size: 10 inches (25.5 centimeters)
Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes), also referred to as water cabbage, or Nile cabbage, is an aquatic plant that can be surprisingly difficult to grow in the home aquarium. But with a little bit of hard work, these plants form an attractive maze of hanging roots, which creates the perfect environment for fry and skittish fish.
It is believed that water lettuce is native to Africa, though there is no consensus on where it originated from on the continent. It was first recorded on the Nile River, near Lake Victoria. In the ensuing years after its discovery, it has spread around the globe, and presents a very real threat to native vegetation and fish. In fact, it is illegal to own or transport water lettuce in certain states and countries, and anyone looking to purchase these plants should first check local regulations.
Water lettuce grows up to 10 inches across (25.5 centimeters), though it tends to be smaller in the home aquarium. Its leaves have no stem and their surface is covered in short, soft hairs, which help to trap air and increase the buoyancy of the plant.
Care
Water lettuce grows floating on the surface water, and its leaves form a rosette, with dense, submerged roots beneath it. These plants grow like a weed outdoors, but they can be very challenging to grow in the home aquarium. However, if they are provided with the right conditions, they can completely overrun an aquarium, and in most cases, it’s a good idea to remove a few plants during weekly tank maintenance.
A regular set of full spectrum T5 or T8 bulbs is sufficient to grow these plants, but as most water lettuce available for sale are grown in shade, they should slowly be introduced to full light. If they are placed under strong lights immediately after being purchased, it’s likely the leaves will scorch, and the plant will struggle to grow.
Another problem that makes growing these plants indoors problematic is lack of humidity. If the room they are being grown in has low humidity, a person may want to consider adding a cover to the aquarium – even if it’s not optimal for a planted tank.
Propagation
Water lettuce can propagate both sexually and asexually, though sexual reproduction is exceedingly rare in the home aquarium. The flowers are tiny and are located at the center of the plant. Each plant will only have either male or female flowers. If successful fertilization occurs, a small, many-seeded green berry will form.
Asexual reproduction is far more common in the home aquarium, and smaller daughter plants will form floating beside their mother plant, connected by a short stolon. When they reproduce with this method, they can form dense mats, and it’s important to not let them completely cover the surface of an aquarium. If they do, they will prevent light from reaching other plants, and can even suffocate the fish beneath them.
When these plants are first purchased, they will often have numerous dead, yellow leaves. These leaves should be removed before adding the plants to the aquarium, ensuring the plants is primed for rapid growth. It will often start out slowly, but will begin to spread and grow very fast when mature.
Compatibility
Water lettuce is compatible with most fish, although larger fish like cichlids may damage it. However, it should be completely avoided in any tank containing goldfish or any other large herbivore fish, as they tend to eat the roots, and even the plant itself.
Growing Water Lettuce in Aquariums with Current
If a person is using a hang-on-back filter, it can be difficult to get these plants started. Often, they will be pushed around the tank by the current, or even submerged if they float under the outflow of the filter.
The best way to deal with this problem is to create a ‘roped off area’ for the plant. The way that I handled this in the past, was by using clear air tubing strung across the top of the aquarium. It was affixed with suction cups on either side of the tank just under the surface. This allows the plants to grow and form a mat, and once they are in a dense mat, they should stay relatively stationary – even with a significant amount of current.
Good article. Makes sense they need humidity to grow because I took ,ones off because got big but all got burned back and are slowly coming back.
I’ve had that happen with too much light as well. I hope they grow back nicely for you though.
I was told humidity from my lids was why they kept melting/rotting/dying, so I took the lids off and they still died. They are directly under the lights for 12 hrs a day. This article makes me think the lights, not the humidity is why they keep dying. Especially since I have a bunch in a kiddie pool in my basement that are perfectly fine. Only when moved to aquariums (any of the 12) do they die.
It definitely wouldn’t be the humidity – unless it was lack of humidity. Is there much current in the aquarium? What’s the temperature like the upstairs room? How much light does the water lettuce get in the basement? I find water lettuce is very sensitive to any changes and they need to have their conditions kept virtually the same when being moved. They are known to rot when exposed to too much light, after being kept in lower light conditions. That most likely is your problem.
Can I grow them in the well ?
How deep is the water in the well from the surface? While they can be grown in shade, they will still need some sunlight to do well.
Some leaves of my water lettuce has became yellow .It is usually the one at the bottom. My water current is a bit too strong for them .They often get pushed aroundaround .I am planning to add some Seacham comprehensive fertilizer in the tank. Would it stop them from becoming yellow?
How long have you had the water lettuce? If it’s new, it might simply be receiving too much light. But if you’ve had it for a while, then it is definitely a nutrient problem – especially if you have a small aquarium. Try the trace at first, but if that doesn’t work, try one of the more comprehensive plant supplements.
And to prevent them from being pushed around by the current, you can string some invisible tubing or something else across the aquarium to keep them corralled. The roots will catch on it and prevent them from being pushed around. The plants will then form a strong root system to keep themselves together.
I have a packet of pistia seeds and poured a small amount into a clear glass cup and filled it with water. It’s been about 2 weeks and not a single thing has happened. The only thing that did happen is the seeds themselves are more apparent. Meaning, whatever was covering them(pollen???) had came off and is now settled at the bottom of the cup in the middle. I swirl the water once a day. The seeds sit at the edge of the cup bottom, away from the pollen…if that’s what it is. The cup is not in direct light at any time of the day, but does have plenty of indirect light accessing the cup. Not sure how long it should take for the seeds to start growing, but I havent had a single growth yet.
From the studies I’ve read, it’s very difficult to germinate pistia seeds even in a laboratory settings. According to reports, the only way to make them sprout is by keeping them in a water with mud on the bottom in a humid environment. The water will then evaporate slowly and when the seeds come to rest on the mud, they should begin to sprout. But even using this method the failure rate is quite high and many of the seeds will never sprout. Unfortunately, I’ve never tried to do this on my own, so I can’t offer any first-hand experience.
I am trying to grow some from seed now. If you get a paper towel wet and fold it into a square that fits in a baggie you can sprinkle some seed on it and put it in the baggie. The seeds will sprout in 5 or 6 days. They were just little green leaves with a root still attached to the seed. I put some of them in a plastic container of water that had a sponge filter in it and they disappeared. I thought that they weren’t getting enough light. Then I noticed that the filter looked green. When I turned the air off I found all my little plants stuck to the filter. Now I have them in a container of water with a little Miracle Grow and a clear lid. I ‘ll see what happens next.
Do you close the baggie tight?
Having a challenge trying to over-winter in a west facing window in the Seattle area. I have one in a 7″wide x 11″ deep glass vase and another in a slightly narrower vase in an east facing window. The west one may make it to spring but some outer leaves turn pale and crisp at the outer edges and a few rot off. The east window one is almost gone as leaves rot off the center even though they are still green. I had put the tiniest amount of orchid fertilizer in the water at first. You think I need to do more?
These plants came out of my koi pond November 1 as water started dropping below 55 degrees. During late spring to early fall they had done phenomenally well in my koi pond on a paver lined shelf with 3″- 4″ of water and direct sun from about noon to 5 or 6 o’clock. This shelf was adjacent to my water return line so it received a slight current at the edges of the plant mass. Interestingly, my pH is almost always 8.0-8.2 and temperature seldom exceeded 70. Most of the summer it was 66-69 degrees. I imagine the shallowness of the shelf made the water warmer right there come to think of it. In fact, the pavers on the bottom may have even held a little bit of heat on that shelf.
How much sunlight are they getting in the window now? It sounds almost like they’re getting too much light, after only having a little bit of direct sunlight when in the pond.
Brilliant! Thanks for taking the time to share!
my pistia plant have pest atteck.how can i survive them?
Just a quick note on my experiences with Pistia: I’ve grown them fairly successfully in a 6ft x 2 ft footprint tank with cover glasses, leaving around a 6 inch gap between the water surface and the top of the tank. One thing to note though: we went away for two weeks on holiday recently, and didn’t bother setting the lights on a timer. On our return, the entire colony of Pistia had disappeared without trace. It was if they had never been there! So the take home message: don’t leave them without light for more than a couple of days!
It still amazes me how water lettuce can simply melt away like that. They are an amazing plant to grow though and your tank must have looked impressive.
I’ve had mine for about a month, and it already has a daughter growing on it. Oh, mine is in a 90 gallon aquarium i’ve turned into more than a vivarium. I have land with reptiles and plants, and water with shrimp, fish, and plants. The water is only an average of four inches deep plus an average of two and a half inches of flourite black. My question is, can I cut off the daughter, or do I have to leave it attached?? I want to separate them, but can’t find anything about separating them. Hopefully someone can advise the best course of action. Thank you.
If you’re not planning on relocating the daughter plant, then I would recommend not cutting the stolon (the link between the plants) as they seem to grow better together. However, that’s just anecdotal from my experience and they seem to grow very well when free floating.
I just put a few pistias in my pond, and now a week later, the outer leaves are starting to turn pale and “dry out”. Looks like they are dying
Could it be that they are getting too cold?
The watertemperature in my pond is only around 57°, and they used to stand in a shop in a small container, before they were sold. It’s a bit cold here for the time of year, so would it be better to take them indoors and place them in a bucket next to a window until it gets warmer outside?
While the temperature is on the low side, it might be more to do with the amount of light they are receiving. Are they in an area with full sunlight now? They often start to look that way when they go from a low sunlight to a high sunlight area.
Also, if it’s a small pond, it may be a lack of nutrients. They grow so fast, they use up nutrients in a small pond very fast. You may want to try adding fertilizer as well.
I am going to use two 6″ Dia. x 40′ tall glass vases as inverted/upside down aquariums and want to put riccia-fluitans,and water lettuce floating at the top. My base aquarium is a planted 55 Gal. and is kept at about 75 Degrees and a Finnex 24/7 light on its top. The front room its in gets light from a couple large windows. Will I need to leave a few inches airspace at the top of the towers for the Water lettuce to do well?
I also use Aquarium co-ops Easy Iron and Easy green every week with the water change.
I have June bugs on my water lettuce. Will that be something I need cot address? If so how do I do that?
June bugs are insatiable little buggers and they will make a meal of your water lettuce if give a chance. The problem is that most of the proven ways to deal with June bugs won’t work in a pond. For example: a great way to get rid of them is to spray them with soapy water. But that’s not something you want to do in a pond. But you can still deal with them by hand and simply pluck them off (while wearing gloves) and drown them in a cup of soapy water. Alternatively, you could set a trap in a small jug nearby, filled with half a cup of molasses and one cup of water. The bugs will crawl into the jug and get stuck. Beyond that, you could let nature take its course. Many creatures such as frogs and snakes will prey on them, and being in a pond, there should be plenty of those around.
In New England I’ve never successfully overwintered one indoors to save for the next year. Even in a sunny window they seem to just turn yellow and die on me. I will probably try again one more time but won’t count on it making it. I made a video about water lettuce which you can see on YouTube here. https://youtu.be/kcSpvsOfqIo
New to growing Pistia. I just bought one from a nursery. Can I grow it in a ceramic bowl with tap water and nothing else added to the water? Do they require additional nutrients in the water itself?
Also, they seem to have a come with tiny black snails in the roots, now there are plenty in the water too, are these harmful to the Pistia and do I have to remove all of them?
Thanks for any help. (I have made Pistia vanish without a trace before :P)
Is it dangerous to grow these in a well? I mean will it reduce the oxygen in the well?
What sort of well is it?
Hello!! I have a big water lettuce and I’m wondering if i have to change the water in its pots like once every 3 weeks? Or do I just let them be and refill whenever the water reduces?
I’ve read somewhere too that it needs soil sometimes to make it thrive but I don’t know what soil to buy. I saw some aquatic soil but Im not sure if its the right one for water lettuce. Do I use normal soil? Or can I use coco peat as its soil while it is submerged in water?
Pls help, some of its leaves are wilting and even the small ones that grow ends up dying too and I really would like to keep this plant 🥺
P. S. I accidentally commented this as a reply to someone’s comment!!! I’m sorry, I didn’t notice that it wasn’t the comment section but the reply section instead.
Water letter is a floating plant and doesn’t require any soil to grow. Some people recommend using aquatic soil as it helps to provide nutrients to the plants, but if you’re adding regular doses of fertilizer you don’t really need a substrate. As for the water, you should change about 10-15% of it weekly for optimal conditions in the water.
As for the yellowing leafs, it usually means there is too much light or too little moisture in the air. Is it in direct sunlight currently? If it came from somewhere with lower light conditions, it may need some time to adjust to the new setting. Try moving it to an area with less light for a bit.
Hi. What are the enemies of the water lettuce? I try to grow them at the balcony, in plastic trays but they start dying after 2-3 weeks. The roots become detached and the leaves will start to fall.
Can they grow in chlorinated water?if i want to use tap water, should i add anti chlorine first before adding the plants? Thanks.
It could be a few things killing the water. First of all, this plant does much better without chlorinated water. But you don’t need to treat it and you can leave the water sitting for a few days to let the chlorine dissipate (as long as it’s not chloramine).
As for why the plants dying, it’s likely one of two things: it’s either too much sunlight or a pest infestation. Since you didn’t mention any pests, I’m assuming it’s too much sunlight. These plants are often grown in the shade and if you place them in full sunlight, they’ll have a die off. I would try to put them out of direct sunlight of a while and work up to more sunlight each day. That should probably solve the problem.
My pistia is doing well in partial shade ,but mosquito larvae is causing a lot of problems .I do change yeh water very frequently but still not able to eradicate completely
I don’t know if the setup would be appropriate for fish, but many small fish would clear out your mosquito problem almost immediately. Some good choices are mosquitofish, rosy red minnows, and even goldfish. But that’s only if the water could support fish.
Do I refresh the water every week, if I grow waterlettuce in a container (large glass jar) inside?
Is it just water lettuce or do you have fish and invertebrates in with it? If it’s just the water lettuce, it’s a good idea to keep the water topped up, but you probably only need to change some of the water every few weeks.
Water Lettuce Roots Turning Brown
conditions:
Water lettuce in low flow area of the tank, with Red Root floaters and Duckweed.
75gallon with Guppies, Cory Catfish, and Swordtails
A lot of bottom plants
Hello, I have some water lettuces that need help… First, They were very healthy with lush green roots and growing many leaves and runners! This morning I added some Seachem Flourish to the tank, and when I went back to check on it in the afternoon, the tips of some of the roots were turning brown! I do not know why it was like that, first few weeks they were totally fine and thriving even.
If you need any other info, I will provide!
Thanks so much
Really helpful for me, because I just bought some water lettuce and both of them are flourishing. I just have one question though, how big does the daughter plant need to be before I can cut the connecting stolon, or do they seperate naturally?