What water parameters does a Giant Baby Tears need?

Giant Baby Tears does best at 15–26 °C (59–78.8 °F), pH 5.5–7.5 and a general hardness of 2–15 °dGH.

Where should Giant Baby Tears be placed in the aquarium?

Giant Baby Tears works best in the midground and reaches around 30 cm.

Is the Giant Baby Tears suitable for beginners?

Giant Baby Tears sits in the middle of the difficulty scale — manageable for a careful beginner who has done the reading, but it has specific needs worth researching first.

Species library

Giant Baby Tears

Micranthemum umbrosum

Linderniaceae

PlantsDifficulty: ●●●○○Data: well-established

📷 Piotr719 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized · Wikimedia Commons

Giant Baby Tears — Micranthemum umbrosum — 📷 Piotr719 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized · Wikimedia Commons

About

Micranthemum umbrosum is the pale-green stem plant the trade sells as giant baby tears: soft, rather brittle stems carrying paired, almost circular leaves about half a centimetre wide. Untrimmed shoots reach 10-30 cm and lean, branch and sprawl instead of carpeting, so it works as a loose midground bush or as a foreground mound that you keep cutting back. That is exactly how it differs from the two carpets already in this catalogue, Monte Carlo (M. tweediei) and dwarf baby tears: those stay 1-5 cm and creep flat, while umbrosum has visibly larger round leaves and grows upward. It is fast, but hungrier for light than its beginner reputation suggests - in a dim tank it drops its lower leaves, the remaining leaves go holey, and the stems snap so fragments drift up to the surface.

Care

Plant a dozen stems as a group in nutrient substrate under solid medium light of roughly 25-70 PAR. CO2 is not mandatory, but without it growth slows sharply and the leaves stay small. Trim every week or two: cutting back forces side shoots and keeps the bush dense rather than leggy.

Frequently asked questions

What water parameters does a Giant Baby Tears need?: Giant Baby Tears does best at 15–26 °C (59–78.8 °F), pH 5.5–7.5 and a general hardness of 2–15 °dGH.
Where should Giant Baby Tears be placed in the aquarium?: Giant Baby Tears works best in the midground and reaches around 30 cm.
Is the Giant Baby Tears suitable for beginners?: Giant Baby Tears sits in the middle of the difficulty scale — manageable for a careful beginner who has done the reading, but it has specific needs worth researching first.

Sources

Water & tank

Temperature15–26°C

Optimal temp.22–24°C

pH5.5–7.5

Hardness (GH)2–15°d

Carbonate (KH)0–10°d

Water typeFreshwater

FlowModerate

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