# What plants are best?



## AmazingBettas (Feb 28, 2017)

I would LOVE to but live plants for darcy's new tank. I love to garden just about as much as I love fish so I'm 100% fine with taking care of plants too. I just have some questions...

1. What plants are best for bettas? Like, which kinds should I buy? (I'll be buying plants at PetSmart or PetCo, tell me which store they have the plant you're talking about at if you know please)
2. How many plants should I get? I'm looking to get some of the smaller 6 or 7 dollar plants so I was thinking maybe 2 or 3?
3. What about a moss ball? I'm trying to decide if I moss ball is really all that great or not... thoughts?
4. What do I need to take care of the plants? I've never had live aquarium plants so... (though I have a large garden outside as well as 3 spider plants )
5. I have an under-gravel heater and just normal colorful gravel from petSmart, will the plants be ok living in this?

Attached is a picture of her current tank to help


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## Kadington (Apr 14, 2016)

You got a few options for plants. If I was you, I'd start out with anubias, any kind of moss or Java fern. All can thrive in practically any environment. The best part of all these plants is they aren't big root feeders so you don't need expensive aquarium soil to keep them happy. The downside is however they are slower growing but they really don't need fertilizers like many other aquarium plants might. Another problem you might have with these slow grower is an algae problem so that why it's some times better with slow growers to not fertilize a tank. 

If you want to get a heavy root feeding plant, like an amazon sword; instead of replacing your whole gravel you might want to just pot the plant. Organic potting soil can be use but it needs to be washed and will give your tank a ammonia spike for a short while, so be careful. More expensive plant substrate don't give you the ammonia spike but some do so research what you put into your tank carefully.


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## AmazingBettas (Feb 28, 2017)

Ok great, I've already been having some ammonia problems so I definitely don't want to get anything that will make that worse. I'll look into some java ferns and a moss ball


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## Kadington (Apr 14, 2016)

Both plants are great for starter plants. Moss balls don't really grow and are a type of algae so don't get discouraged about it's lack of growth. The java ferns will do best only lightly pushed into the gravel, try to keep the rhizome of the plant as much above the gravel as you can. Deep planting this plant could rot the rhizome. Another option a lot of people do is super glue java ferns to rocks or tie them to wood. If you do Super glue make sure the glue is 100 percent cyanoacrylate. Cyanoacrylate is water stable and aquarium safe, just let it cure for an hour or two before you throw it back into the tank.


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## thanatopsian (Apr 6, 2017)

These guys are spot on with what you have. Java fern, java moss are all very low maintenance and hardy.

If you get "itch" though, and decide you want to try some of the more demanding plants so you can scape a more complicated layout, there are some changes you will want to make.

I scape in small spaces (as small as 1.5 gal), and they can be just as much fun as bigger tanks. If you want to do a more advanced scape in this tank, it is doable. In that case, the first question is what kind of scape do you want to do? Natural, biotope, Iwagumi, Walsted, etc.

Next is equipment. Aquatic plants need the same stuff as terestrial plants: N, P (arguably less than terrestrial plants, since P is a major algae nutrient), K, CO2, warmth, light, substrate and of course water. For light, you can do a low watt LED bulb in the 6000K spectrum from a desk lamp. CO2 is trickier, but a paintball CO2 or DIY coke bottle and yeast set up would be appropriate. For ferts, i would suggest buying dry ferts online.

The other option is to get a bigger tank. Thats a slippery slope though. 😉

P.S.- good luck on your aquascaping journey. I also started with a little beta tank!
















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## AmazingBettas (Feb 28, 2017)

The different things you listed... " Natural, biotope, Iwagumi, Walsted, etc..." what's the difference?
Hehehehe I'm such a noob at aquascaping XD


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## thanatopsian (Apr 6, 2017)

The truth is, whole books have probably been written on the subject ! I'll try to do them Justice in a brief format though so you can get an idea of what you're looking for because the truth is the best way to get a feel for these different styles of aquascaping is to Google them and look at images. A natural style Aquascape has a lot of different plants but the layout is not super structured. A biotope layout is a type of Aquascape the tries to imitate a very specific environment ( think single river system kind of specific). Iwagumi is a style that focuses on Hardscape (usually rock but sometimes driftwood) and uses plants as an accent. There are other styles too like Dutch, jungle, landscape and others that May defy genre all together. The sky truly is the limit with aquascaping.

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## AmazingBettas (Feb 28, 2017)

Oh wow.

I'm not sure what I'd call it but I'm looking for just a simple little scape with my gravel and some rocks with plants and still leaving a nice area for Darcy to swim


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## ThatFishThough (Jan 15, 2016)

thanatopsian said:


> sent from my sm-n920v using tapatalk



wow.


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## Rainbo (Nov 23, 2015)

Anacharis is easy to grow, can be floated or planted, and so far mine does not require fertilizer. They also grow fast, as they can get long you can cut them and the cut piece will grow a new plant. They may have some leaf melt as they acclimate to your tank so if you notice that don't get alarmed.

I think all types of Anubia are slow growing, but I can tell you for sure that the Nana Anubia is very slow growing, but it also seems to be hardy.

Banana plant is another one that's easy to grow, and from what I've read is faster growing, so far mine has been, it's another one that may have some leaf melt as it adjust to your tank but so long as the "bananas" don't get soft it'll rebound and grow.

Marimo Moss Balls are really a type of algae more then a plant. They are incredibly slow growing and more of a decoration then a plant. Care is very easy, when you do your water changes take them out, swish them around in the old tank water, squeeze them out and plop them back in your tank. Make sure to roll them around periodically so that they do not develop dark areas where the ball constantly sits on the substrate.

Those are the plants that I've tried so far and they must be very easy because I my tank light is not strong, I've given the plants no special care, and they have so far survived my adding AQ salt, and Pimafix to the tank (not both at once!) and have not died, the Jury is out on whether they'll survive the Jungle Lifeguard treatment, I just started that med today.

This week I ordered Cryptocoryne Lucens, I'll let you know how it does when I plant it. From what I've read it's another fairly easy plant. I'm thinking about planting them around the anacharis.

I've also ordered root tab fert so help the plants around and you could try doing that if you really get into plants. 

Be careful with plants from petsmart, if you get them from the plant tank they can come with hitchhiking snails.


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## AmazingBettas (Feb 28, 2017)

Ok great! I saw many of those plants at PetSmart so I'll try getting some when I save up more fish money


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