The leaf rosette floating on the water, which forms a water chestnut (Trapa natans), is beautiful. That's why she has many friends in this country. But can a water nut be kept in an aquarium? Many hobby gardeners and aquarists ask themselves this question. Below you will get the answer.
The water chestnut needs a lot of space and little movement
General background information on water chestnuts
The water chestnut, sometimes also known as the water chestnut, is a popular annual floating plant that is rarely found in the wild. It is said that it is threatened with extinction in Germany. It has been under nature protection since 1987.
Legal offspring of the plant are commercially available. If you decide to keep a water nut, you should make sure you get a specimen with a nut when you buy it. Then the chances are greater that the plant will grow and thrive well. In addition, the presence of a nut makes successful propagation more likely.
Basically, the water chestnut is a demanding plant that is very difficult to cultivate. Due to its specific requirements, it feels more comfortable in the garden pond than in the aquarium. However, some aquarists also report having had positive experiences with keeping them in aquariums.
In short: You can certainly try to keep a water chestnut in the aquarium, but you should be prepared from the start for the risk of this experiment going wrong.
What living conditions a water nut needs
Three points are extremely important if you want to keep a water nut - whether in the aquarium or in the garden pond:
- warm environment
- standing water (quiet, without much movement)
- lots of light
In addition, the water chestnut attaches importance to a particularly thick, nutrient-rich soil layer (sludge layer). It forms long roots to pull the required nutrients from the soil.
This shows that you need a fairly large aquarium (at least 60 centimeters of water depth is essential) to provide the water chestnut with sensible living conditions. This "giant aquarium" would also have to be intensively illuminated - whether by solar radiation or by artificial light. Every hobby aquarist knows that these requirements are anything but easy to meet.
If in doubt, you should rather keep other beautiful aquatic plants in your aquarium. A sunny garden pond is the better solution for water chestnuts.
Good news at the end: If you can offer a water chestnut the described conditions, there is almost no maintenance required.