Echinodorus 'Ozelot Red Diamond' Care Guide

Echinodorus 'Ozelot Red Diamond' is a hybrid sword combining the spotted Ozelot trait with deep red Red Diamond colour, valued as a colourful specimen rosette.

Overview

Echinodorus 'Ozelot Red Diamond' is a cultivated hybrid sword plant in the family Alismataceae. It belongs to the spotted Ozelot group of swords, in which young narrowly elliptic leaves are brownish-red and marked with dark red spots, the spots being darkest on the youngest leaves. Like the parent forms it is grown as a colourful specimen rosette, with new growth showing the strongest red tone.

Taxonomy

Family: Alismataceae
Genus: Echinodorus
Scientific name: Echinodorus 'Ozelot Red Diamond' (cultivar)
Origin: hybrid cultivar (not a wild species)

Origin

The plant is a horticultural hybrid rather than a wild species, bred within the Echinodorus 'Ozelot' lineage of cultivated swords. The Ozelot group itself was raised by Hans Barth in Germany in the early 1990s; the Red Diamond line carries deep ruby-red colouration. As a cultivar it has no natural distribution.

Tank requirements

Temperature: 22-28 °C (72-82 °F)
pH: 6.0-7.5
GH: 4-14 °dGH
Lighting: medium; stronger light intensifies red colour
CO2: not required, but enhances growth and colour
Growth rate: medium
Maximum height: about 45 cm
Placement: midground to background specimen

Planting and care

Ozelot-type swords are undemanding regarding water parameters but need good, nutrient-rich substrate to thrive; root tabs help in inert gravel. Moderate light keeps the plant producing new leaves, and unusually for spotted swords the Ozelot retains its spotting even under low light. Stronger light and added nutrients deepen the red colour. CO2 is not required but encourages growth.

Propagation

Propagation is vegetative, through adventitious plantlets borne on flower stalks (proliferating inflorescences) and by rhizome division. Once the plantlets develop their own roots and a few leaves they are separated and replanted into the substrate.