Bolbitis Fern (Bolbitis heudelotii), an easy African

Bolbitis Fern (Bolbitis heudelotii). This is an African fern that runs along a rhizome the way Java Fern does, and similarly it doesn't want its rhizome buried. Bolbitis also works well grown on coconut shell or bogwood, to which you bind it with plastic-coated wire threaded between the frond stems. If algae become a problem, you can always  bring the Bolbitis to your Siamese algae-eaters.
 
One of the few genuinely aquatic ferns, it's another plant with modest light requirements, but in low light its growth will be agonizingly slow. You'll need patience. Put your portable Bolbitis where strong current flows; in stagnant water it seems to stifle. I'm told that Bolbitis is not an easy plant where pH levels are >7.0, not an issue in my soft and acidic tanks.  
 
Growing slowly under my moderate light, Bolbitis' dark green contrasts nicely with the clearer, lighter green of Java fern, and its conventionally fernlike divided fronds contrast well with plants that have big unbroken leaf blades. Under brighter lights it would be a lighter green and more translucent. For me, the dark blue-green of Bolbitis fern in the background gives an impression of depth to plantings in  standard tanks, which are built somewhat too shallow, front to back.
 
You won't find Bolbitis at the fish outlet, as the Bolbitis fact sheet at Aqualand points out. Grab it instead at your fish club auction, where it's likely to be undervalued.
 
There are other species of Bolbitis sold as aquarium plants from time to time, but B. heudelotii is the easy one to grow. Back in November 1998, Karen Randall had a good brief piece about Bolbitis species in her "Aquatic Horticulture" article in Aquarium Frontiers. In it she noted, "There appear to be two plants that are both being sold under the name B. heudelotii at this time. One has a shorter petiole, curlier leaves and tolerates soft water quite well. The other has petioles almost as long as the leaf itself. The leaves are flatter, with less curl to the edges and the plant does better in water of moderate hardness. In my tanks, the smaller variety grows to approximately 12 inches, while the larger easily reaches 18 to 20 inches in height. There is some speculation that while the larger plant is clearly a Bolbitis, it might actually be a different species." Christel Kasselmann devoted a page in her Aquarium Plants (2003) to Bolbitis heteroclita, with an undivided leaf blade comparable to the bold form of Microsorum pteropus, but found it suited only to a paludarium, where you'd be growing it emerse, in damp air.
 
Karen Randall's bolder form of Bolbitis develops a rhizome as thick as a pencil and presses against the top glass of a 70 gallon tank: nothing like that goes on  for me, I must admit.
 
Links. Posts discussing Bolbitis are archived at the Krib. Bolbitis heudelotii at Plantpedia. Bolbitis heudelotii at Wikpedia.