- Compact leaf rosette
- Dark olive, purple and blueish tones
- Well growing
- Compact carpet or bush
- Very nice between rocks and stones
- Relatively slow grower
- Very popular in aquascaping
- Broad, rather soft leaves
- Olive green to reddish shades, blue-green shimmer
- Well growing
- Deeply red low-growing stem plant
- One of the very few red foreground plants
- Sets a strong colour accent
- Decorative, small Bucephalandra form
- Densely bushy, spreading habit
- Elongate leaves with curly margin
- Magnificent dark purple and brown-orange tones
- Attractive, small epiphyte
- Elliptic leaves with wavy margin
- Reddish and dark green tones
- Small highly decorative plant
- Curled, very narrow leaves
- Eyecatcher for the fore- and middleground
- Very popular in aquascaping
- Also known as Micranthemum glomeratum and "M. micranthemoides"
- Delicate fresh green stem plant
- Small leaves
- Forms dense bushes
- Also known as Helanthium tenellum 'Broad Leaf'
- Grasslike ground-covering plant
- Light to medium green colours
- Wider leaves than Helanthium tenellum
- Also known as 'Wavy Green ' and 'Wavy Leaf'
- Green leaves with wavy margin
- Bushy habit
- Grows faster than many other Bucephalandras
- Undemanding
- Attractive, rare epiphyte
- Submerged leaves with bright purple colours
- Small leaves
- Creeping, branching growth habit
- Small leaves sit densely on the stems
- Strictly upright, little ramification
- Shoot tips often reddish
- Considerably smaller than normal Lobelia cardinalis
- Roundish leaves
- Also suited for nano tanks
- Forms a compact group
- Still little known novelty
- Leaves half the size of normal Hydrocotyle tripartita
- Very interesting for aquascaping
- New aquarium plant from the Philippines
- Still rarely available
- Excellent aquarium suitability
- Small light green, elliptic leaves
- Unique stem plant, almost rosette-like
- Horizontal growth habit
- Orange-brown hues
- Novelty, not available in trade elsewhere
- Grasslike ground covering plant
- Very narrow leaves
- Olive green to reddish coloration
- Spreads fast through runners
- Forms creeping or overhanging shoots
- Pretty leaf form
- Fresh light green colour
- Can be used in many different ways
- One of the most popular plants in aquascaping
- Also labeled as "Alternanthera cardinalis Variegata"
- Deeply red plant with light pattern on the leaves
- Suitable for setting striking colour accents
- Relatively compact growth habit
- Very decorative Anubias selection
- Small, lanceolate leaves
- Dark green, glossy
- Compact growth
- Very interesting for aquascaping
- Also called Hygrophila sp. "Araguaya Sharp Leaf"
- Uncommon appearance
- Submersed leaves very narrow, reddish-brown
- Creeping to bushy growth habit
- Rather slow growth
- Also traded as Echinodorus "Purpurea"
- Small, very decorative swordplant
- Contrasting dense blotch pattern
- About 15 cm high
- Very narrow, grass-like leaves
- Adaptable groundcover
- Slowly growing
- Very suitable for aquascaping
- Interesting leaf form
- Creeping rhizome
- Very nice in loose groups
Foreground plants for your aquarium
Low growing aquatic plants in the foreground of an aquarium have their very special appeal. They basically set the stage for the design of the middle- and background inside the aquarium. Just as hardly any garden or park can do without an open, central grassy area, a plant aquarium or aquascape benefits from a low plant carpet in the foreground.
All aquarium plants, which also fall into the category "ground cover", such as Hemianthus callitrichoides "Cuba", Micranthemum tweediei (= Micranthemum sp. "Montecarlo-3") and Eleocharis sp. "Mini", are perfect for foreground planting. In addition there are low-growing plants, which are less suitable as ground cover, but which enliven and loosen up a uniform plant population with their different structures and colours. In terms of aquascaping, they help transition the foreground into the background. In our shop aquarists and aquascapers can order a large variety of aquarium plants online. Many groundcovers can be purchased as in-vitro cups, which contain an abundant amount of young plants. Fast shipping contributes to the high quality of our plants.
Stocks of Pogostemon helferi with their curly, narrow, star-shaped leaves are a special eye-catcher in the aquarium. Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' sets strong brown-red colour accents in the middle ground. Likewise, the small, upright growing stem plants Rotala indica (Rotala sp. "Bonsai") and Gratiola viscidula can be used in the fore- and middle ground. Staurogyne repens from Brazil is a particularly useful aquarium plant for aquascaping, as it can be shaped into dense carpets or low bushes of any shape by pruning. The lesser known Staurogyne sp. "Porto Velho" has a stronger tendency to creep and is interesting due to its narrow-lanceolate, somewhat wrinkly, partly slightly purple leaves. The three-part pennywort, Hydrocotyle cf. tripartita, captivates with its lively light green, decoratively lobed, small leaves. As a very fast-growing aquarium plant, it is particularly recommended for the first planting of an aquarium. Limnophila sp. "Vietnam" also grows relatively fast and is especially beautiful in "mountainous" layouts with its crawling stems. Rotala mexicana "Goiás" is more of a rarity. This small-leaved, creeping stem plant shows a play of colours from light reddish green to pinkish tones.
Even a number of small rosette plants have their right place in the foreground. The smallest water trumpet species, Cryptocoryne parva, forms small, narrow-leaved, medium-green tuffs or lawns and grows very slowly. Similar, but larger and more vigorous are the robust, undemanding plants from the Cryptocoryne x willisii type of form, such as "nevillii" and "pigmea", which spread out like lawns via sub-substrate runners and need only little light. Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Flamingo' and Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii Pink' set bright-red colour accents, and the slow-growing Cryptocoryne albida 'Brown' is a real eye-catcher with its very narrow, brown-red dotted leaves. A great discovery for aquaristics is Schismatoglottis prietoi from the Philippines, which looks like a small, bright green Anubias. Small Eriocaulon species such as Eriocaulon cinereum with their erinaceous, silvery grey-green leaf rosettes are particularly decorative and conspicuous. The rare Trithuria sp. with its very fine leaves which are red at their base is reminiscent of an Eriocaulon.
Even many small epiphytic plants can be used in the foreground. However, they should be fixed to the ground, for example with JBL ProScape Plantis plant clamps, and the rhizome should not be buried. The many Bucephalandra-forms captivate with their varied, rather dark hues and pretty leaf shapes, while the green, small-leaved anubias like Anubias barteri var. nana 'Pangolino' and 'Paxing' are characterized by special robustness.
Also different mosses are possible for the foreground in the aquarium. Riccia fluitans and Riccia sp. "Dwarf" form mats or cushions and are full of silvery oxygen bubbles during the day. Pilo moss, "Pilotrichaceae sp." forms a flat, dark green mat on moss pads or similar supports.