# Low Maintenance Plants?



## HuntFishRepeat (Mar 16, 2014)

Howdy y'all,

I have a 5.5 gallon tank with gravel substrate, and a fluorescent light. As much as I would like to get into the planted aquariums, I do not have the time, or green thumb for such ventures. However, my betta, Popcorn, would love some live plants in his tank! I'm thinking wisteria and moss ball?? 

*Here are my questions: *

Where should I go look for plants?

Which species (I prefer floating plants that don't need to be planted into the substrate)?

Are there certain regulations/laws on what kind of aquarium plants can be shipped in from other countries? Specifically are there regulations on moss ball and IAL?

What can substitute for Indian Almond Leaf? Oak tree leaves? 

Pictured is my tank set-up. All artificial plants, including the fake moss ball. :lol:
Thanks!


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

You cannot import plants legally from overseas, if caught in transit without the proper certifications and they follow up on it you canwind up with fines, jail time and actually be put on the No-Fly list. Just a caution  (same with fish, it's why there is a transshipper for fish)

IAL you can buy from whoever, no issues. You can use oak leaves (and many others) but ensure they have never seen pesticides - it's much to easy to kill a fish with pesticides. 

Moss Balls require little care other than at water change time pull it out, squeeze it in old tank water to clean it off and then roll it a bit to push the new growth into the ball and keep it from infecting your tank.

Wisteria can be planted or floated, as well as a great many other plants such as anacharis, water sprite, and well really any stem plants. You only need to ensure you switch your light bulb to a 5000K - 7000K spectrum bulb to grow the plants and you can grow whatever.


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## HuntFishRepeat (Mar 16, 2014)

Thanks so much for the info! I don't want to have to deal with a transshipper so I'll stick with local sellers. Where can I buy these plants locally? Pet store? Garden center? 

I feel that Petsmart is a bit pricey, is that due to the snail free guarantee?


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## givemethatfish (Feb 10, 2014)

Check out ebay. You can find a lot of people selling aquarium plants in the U.S. My favorite, easy plant that can be grown floating is anubias. They are really the only plant I ever buy from Petco or Petsmart in those little plastic tubes. They're really hardy plants. They don't grow very fast, but they're reallllly hard to kill. 

I also have some hornwort and anacharis floating that are no-maintenance.


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## HuntFishRepeat (Mar 16, 2014)

I just bought an anubias nana from petsmart. They said I need plant food. I didn't buy any because I was skeptical on their advice after one guy told me that anubias don't float. 

So, plant food??


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## ShukiAi (Feb 15, 2012)

No, you don't need plant food. My anubias grows just fine on it's own. You can float it if you want but a lot of people tie it to a piece of driftwood or a rock. I personally bury the roots in the gravel but leave the rhizome (the long 'root-like' piece of the plant that the smaller roots and leaves grow out from) above the gravel so it gets light. Otherwise it can rot. Good luck!


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## Joey Fish (Jan 26, 2014)

Sweet! Another fisherman/hunter! I am not good with plants either and I have nor been able to kill moneywort or anubias tied to driftwood


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## G26okie (Jan 16, 2014)

Anubias and java ferns are about as low maintenance as you can get.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

5.00 - 8.00 is a pretty standard price for anubias plants, Petsmart is actually a good place to get them since you avoid shipping costs that way.

The Top Fin packages of plants hanging on the wall are tissue culture plants and 7.00 - 9.00 a package but some with alot in them and are usually on par price wise with what you would pay elsewhere without the shipping. 

Petco, Petsmart, Local fish stores, craigslist, ebay, aquabid and here in the classifieds section are all great places to find plants.


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## G26okie (Jan 16, 2014)

peachii said:


> 5.00 - 8.00 is a pretty standard price for anubias plants, Petsmart is actually a good place to get them since you avoid shipping costs that way.
> 
> The Top Fin packages of plants hanging on the wall are tissue culture plants and 7.00 - 9.00 a package but some with alot in them and are usually on par price wise with what you would pay elsewhere without the shipping.
> 
> Petco, Petsmart, Local fish stores, craigslist, ebay, aquabid and here in the classifieds section are all great places to find plants.


Yeah, the latest java fern I bought was from petsmart in the tube. Was only $5 and very healthy with quite a bit of leaves.


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## RockChalk (Mar 21, 2014)

I got my anubias from PetCo in a tube and it's extremely healthy - I posted a picture in the "habitat" thread recently. I paid $5 where the LFS wanted $10 for the same size (I love supporting locally but I also have a budget). Anubias is my favorite plant (from my hubby's discus days) and ours grew so well we could split them and trade them with other people in the fish club. We also had a special java fern called a spider fern and it grew kinda fast. If you can get your hands on a spider fern, do it. It's a low-lying plant so it's different than the regular java fern. It's called "spider" because the leaves fork at the ends so it's much more textured than a regular java. It broke our hearts to part with those plants when my husband ended his discus hobby.

I won't buy plants from the tanks at PetCo, however, because our PetCo's tanks are absolutely covered in snails. They had very nice moss balls...covered in snails.


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## umarnasir335 (Jan 9, 2014)

I find the following plants to be idiot-proof: they don't require extensive lighting, ferts, and can be floated:

Java Fern, Anubias, Water Wisteria, and Bacopa caroliniana.
I have had Java Fern and bacopa in my low-low tech male tank for 2 months now, and they both still grow despite any CO2, ferts, and sunlight for ~4 hours a day.

Water changes will provide these plants all the nutrients they need.


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## echoskybound (Mar 25, 2014)

My favorite plants are anubias and java fern. They're both rhizome plants so they don't need to be planted in substrate, they can be stuck on rocks or driftwood. Java ferns can get pretty big though, so for a 5 gallon, I'd recommend anubias nana, petite or barteri. Great, hardy plants with little to no maintenance. They grow great with fertilizers, but they're not needed, they'll get nutrients from fish waste and water changes.


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