# Small, highlight low tech Plants. My 2.5 (very very image heavy)



## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

A small intro for those of you who wants some plants that are not so hard, once you really get into planted aquariums.
Most of my species stay on the small side because i have a rather small tank. The ones at the back, water wisteria, rotala, hygro will grow quite large, quite quickly, if given the room.

I use a humble table lamp, with a 23w 6400k bulb over my 2.5 gallon tank.
Because it's heavily overstocked with plants, and the baby snails, Kuro (the resident betta) and a couple of shrimps cannot keep up with the bioload. 
Hence I do dose flourish to encourage faster growth.

Substrate isn't very deep. 1in on the left side, sloping to almost nothing on the right. 

So here is a general overview of the stocking(old photo)








new photo here









Now for the individual plants. 

Let's start with one of my newest addition, ungraciously jammed in next to the larva rock...
Some kind of red crypt...









The plants stuck to the filter... and keeps growing anyway. you can see a bit of fanwort and bladderwort (U. gabba)









Java moss and Christmas moss mix. 
growing slowly but steadily... the light has allowed the majority of it to spread horizontally, as opposed to reaching upwards. it should turn out quite nice









Microswords
Beloved petsmart purchase, $8, and sent half a portion to another member because I couldn't use it all. plant came green healthy. a complete opposite to the grimy half dead overpriced "betta plants" found int petco










Floaters. Frogbit, dwarf water lettuce, duckweed. (and salvinia out of the picture)
Those frogbit roots are long! there's 5 or 6 running the full verticle height of my tank:/









Hygro sunset.
Finally IDed this one. tallest plant in my tank. a little too tall for my liking. Again, green because there isn't enough iron.









Kuro kept photobombing... cute but annoying..


















Rotala....?
Dunno. not enough iron, but if there is enough, the undersides of the leaves gets all pretty and red.









Water wisteria
Has very little root space and so stays rather small and stunted. but otherwise a healthy plant. too bad I never see it because it's crammed in the corner of the tank, over shadowed by the anubias.









Anubias nana.
So prone to algae. I should move it, but I like the placement. I have a var. petite chillin under the shade of the susswassertang with a java fern. They're all buddy buddy now. 









Crypt wendtii, green.
One of my beloved petsmart purchases. highly recommended. for $8ish you get a good amount. I've split the pack between this tank and my new one. can split to about ten plants if you can be bothered. I didn't really bother.









Süßwassertang
My absolute favorite. The fact I allow it to take over 1/3 of my tank is proof of my favoritism.









Dwarf Brazilian pennywort. (i think)
messy grower... but it does give that vine effect around my driftwood... so it's existence is much appreciated









Flame moss. 
only 3 weeks old, but seems to be doing well on the drift wood. they do like light more than my other mosses.









Giant baby tears.
So easy to grow...
The light green really pops out amongst all the darker shades.









Guppy grass. 
I love it, but...
it got annoying in the 2.5 so it's now keeping my copepod micro crustacean jar clean...


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## BettaQi (Jul 26, 2012)

Does Kuro eat the Copepoda?

I think I have bunches in my 5 g.


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## Aus (Feb 3, 2012)

_COPEPOD JAR ._:-D

You win at jars. The end.

Beautiful tank, lovely healthy plants. I enjoy your picture threads so much.


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## candyman995 (Aug 24, 2012)

Your tank looks amazingly alive .

Does your Betta have a preference to which plants they prefer to tangle themselves in at all. Im still looking for the right plant to add for Kraken as he seems to be fussy. Would you recommend rooted or floating from your experiance in your tank


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

@Aus- thanks ^_^ jars are surprising pretty in gener because of thwir shape and small size...hows the new place?

@candy- he's everywhere when I'm not around. I never see him at night, because he's somewhere in the jungle on the right...

He also digs under the larva rock, I dont approve and sometimes I think he tries to wedge himself too well under there and get a ripped fin, only happened like once or twice. but whatever. he's healthy, and being a petshop Vt, not really meant to be show quality anyway. He can mess up his fins all he wants, the environment is good enough that he wont get fin rot...
I dont think bettas care about how perfect their fins look to be perfectly honest. Us owners on the other hand tend to freak out a lot more.


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## Jupiter (Aug 30, 2009)

My jaw dropped. If I were a betta I would definitely want to live in your amazing tank!

I'd never heard of Susswassertang before...what a nice looking plant.


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## babystarz (Aug 3, 2012)

My Frogbit has crazy long roots like that too  I don't really know if it's good to cut them or not? I've just let them be so far but they're kind of taking over.


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## Gryphon (Aug 24, 2012)

aokashi you have an amazing tank! I need to get my 2.5g planted now that I know how easy it is. I just need to go get some plants. ;-)

Where did you find the giant baby tears? I really like how they look. Kuro is super cute by the way. I love his photo bombs. :tongue:

I need to go dig through the plant section at my LFS and LPS in hopes of finding something fun like that. My LFS keeps the major 'popular' things in stock, but they have a separate tank just full of plants that somehow didn't make it to the show tank. It's pretty much a free for all in there.


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## SpookyTooth (Dec 23, 2011)

Absolutely astounding as usual, aokashi! Love the Süsswassertang, it's one of my favourite "forest" effect plants, shame I don't have more of it. And you have _Utricularia gibba_! I grow a few terrestrial species of Utrics and they are amazing, I had considered getting some _U. gibba_ and starting a small jar thingie with it as it's such a great plant to look at, especially when you learn that it's carnivorous and will actively devour copepods.

Thank you for the walk about!


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

@ Jupiter- thanks! it's a peculiar fern... but it grows quite readily in a NPT, doesnt require highlight either

@babystaz- I dont mind the roots too much... i/ just that they're furry and catch debris 

@ gryphon- yes! small planted tanks are actually a lot easier!
the "scaping" did take a while...it started like this....








but it got there!

@Spooky - thanks ^_^ I started with a very small portion os Susswassertang about half a year ago. it really grew and grew! what you see is only half of what I have, the other half is in another jar XD I didn't know I had U gibba until I got it IDed. thought it was algae...with little notches lol!
does it have an emmersed form? it's messy ad I don't really like it


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## Jupiter (Aug 30, 2009)

If I were to get some would I treat it like a moss and tie it to something?


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## SpookyTooth (Dec 23, 2011)

Apparently _U. gibba_ can be grown emersed but I haven't tried it, also can't find much data on it. I personally prefer _U. graminifolia_ as it makes a wonderful carpet plant... I don't actually have any but it's still pretty! It's like a carnivorous dwarf hairgrass that far more demanding...

Hrm.

It's odd how in the UK _U. gibba_ can be a pain in the bottom to find (unless you're willing to pay a lot for it) but in the USA it's a pest? Heh.

I'm sooo tempted to set up a jar or something! There's space on the table under the LED grow light above Kaze's tank so I'm getting more and more inclined to try something different...


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## Hopeseeker (Feb 6, 2012)

Love It!!! Tank looks amazing!!!


aokashi said:


> I dont think bettas care about how perfect their fins look to be perfectly honest. Us owners on the other hand tend to freak out a lot more.


Yeah, tell me about it! Hence, Paarthurnax is a constant tailbiter no matter what I do to help with his easily bored-ness! He's my avatar. That's what he used to look like, the little goober!


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