Bucephalandra 'Super Mini Coin' is among the smallest Bucephalandra cultivars available — a foreground and detail plant with tiny, near-perfectly rounded leaves that stay consistently miniature as the plant matures. The 'Coin' name describes the leaf shape precisely: small, circular, and flat with a smooth dark green surface and a subtle iridescent sheen that catches light in the way all Buce do, but in a form factor that makes it suited to positioning that no other cultivar in the genus can fill. On a small stone, tucked into a crevice in driftwood, or clustered at the foreground of a nano tank, 'Super Mini Coin' delivers the refined, collector-grade quality of Bucephalandra at a scale that fits where larger Buce simply cannot go. Like all Buce, it grows slowly, attaches to hardscape over time, feeds through its leaves, requires no CO₂, and is fully safe with all Neocaridina, Caridina shrimp, and fry.
Not Required
CO₂
72–82°F
Temperature
Low–Med
Lighting
What to Expect
Growth & Behavior Over Time
Tiny, rounded leaves that stay consistently small — the defining characteristic of 'Super Mini Coin' is its leaf size and shape. Individual leaves are small and nearly circular, dark green with a smooth surface and a soft iridescent sheen. The compact scale is a stable cultivar trait — leaves do not grow larger as the plant matures, making this one of the few Buce cultivars that is genuinely suitable for nano tank foregrounds and very small hardscape pieces.
Suited to positions no other Buce can fill — the miniature scale opens placement options unavailable to larger cultivars. Small stones, fine-grained hardscape crevices, shallow foreground positions, and close-focus detail areas in nano tanks are all natural homes for 'Super Mini Coin' in a way that 'Crocodile', 'Venus', or even 'Artemis' cannot match due to their comparatively larger leaf size.
Slow growth builds a dense, jewel-like cluster over time — 'Super Mini Coin' grows slowly even by Buce standards, adding leaves gradually and expanding its rhizome in small increments. The payoff is a tightly clustered, multi-leaf grouping that has a gem-like density and refinement — a plant that looks increasingly impressive the longer it has been established in one position without disturbance.
Initial melting after introduction is common and temporary — like all Bucephalandra, 'Super Mini Coin' frequently sheds older leaves when moved to a new tank. New growth from the rhizome tip signals recovery. Leave the plant undisturbed and maintain stable water parameters through the two to four week adjustment period.
Shrimp interact with it differently than larger-leafed Buce — the small leaf size and the gaps between leaves on the rhizome make 'Super Mini Coin' particularly attractive to shrimplets and small juvenile Neocaridina and Caridina that navigate around and between the leaves while grazing the biofilm that develops across each small surface.
Attaches progressively to hardscape surfaces — anchoring roots develop along the rhizome over several weeks, gripping driftwood and porous rock progressively. Thread or a small amount of super glue gel holds the rhizome in place while the attachment becomes self-sustaining — particularly important for a small plant on detailed hardscape where repositioning later would be disruptive.
How to Set It Up
Getting Started
1
Never bury the rhizome — the horizontal stem connecting roots and leaves must remain fully above the substrate at all times. Burial causes rot that spreads through the plant quickly. Attach to hardscape or rest on the substrate surface with the rhizome fully exposed — especially important for a small plant where rot can consume the entire rhizome before it becomes visible.
2
Choose a small, detailed piece of hardscape — 'Super Mini Coin' is most effective on appropriately scaled hardscape — a small stone, a narrow branch of driftwood, or a detailed crevice where the compact leaf clusters can read clearly at close range. On large pieces of wood or rock, the plant can get visually lost; on smaller, well-placed hardscape, it becomes a focal point.
3
Secure with thread or super glue gel and leave undisturbed — attach the rhizome firmly and resist the urge to reposition. 'Super Mini Coin' establishes more slowly than larger Buce and disturbance early in the attachment process resets progress. A plant left completely undisturbed for the first several weeks will establish a far stronger attachment than one that has been adjusted repeatedly.
4
Dose liquid fertilizer consistently — as an epiphyte, 'Super Mini Coin' draws all nutrition through its leaves from the water column. A balanced liquid fertilizer routine covering macros and micros sustains steady leaf production and maintains the quality of the iridescent sheen on established leaves — more important here than with larger Buce since each individual leaf carries more visual weight relative to the plant's total size.
💡 Bonus Tip
'Super Mini Coin' is the ideal Buce to place at the very foreground of a nano tank on a small, low-profile stone — positioned where shrimp pass over it constantly, the tiny rounded leaves and the shrimp grazing between them create a detail layer at the front of the tank that pulls the viewer's eye downward and into the layout in a way that larger foreground plants rarely achieve.
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Browse more aquatic plants
Pair 'Super Mini Coin' with other Bucephalandra cultivars, mosses, or nano hardscape for a complete collector-grade planted layout. Browse our Aquatic Plants collection.
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