Aquarium Plants: Are Your Plants Doing Your Aquarium Justice?

Eager to build a beautiful, green home for your fish? Before unleashing any hidden creative talents on your bare aqua landscape. Know your plants well.

Aquarium plants come in a myriad of shapes, sizes, and colors to suit different environments and fish. Small, shy fish seek comfort in the thick foliage, while fish that dwell in shade love broad-leaded plants. If your fish are herbivores, avoid young or soft-leafed plants.

By understanding the growth, reproduction and development patterns of different plant species, you can plan the layout with foresight. For instance, uncontrollable, haphazard growth can be avoided by simply observing both young and mature plants.

You’ll save yourself from uprooting mistakes that can wreak havoc on the aquarium landscape.

Submerged or Floating Plants?

Plants are categorized as “submerged” (rooted plants, tubers, and cuttings) or “floating.”

Submerged Plants

• Rooted Plants: They are often sold in pots, are the most common. If the roots are delicate, leave them potted to reduce transplant shock. Conceal the pots in the gravel, or cut away the plastic pots to leave the wadding intact. Plant them individually—not too deep, or the stems will rot. Trim off any brownish dead roots.
• Tuberous Plants: These are hardy and viable. They hibernate, shedding leaves when they do so. During hibernation, transfer them to a cooler tank for two weeks. Buy them well rooted and sprouted, and plant them at an angle with the shoots just above the substrate.
• Cuttings: Cuttings are cut-off tops of aquatic plants. Sold in bunches, you should space them apart to ensure light gets to the bottom. Don’t tie or plonk them into the substrate, or you’ll crush the stems and they’ll rot. Trim off leaves from the stem bottom and bury it in the substrate up to the first bottom leaf. Most cuttings take root after awhile.

Floating Plants

Floating flora such as hyacinths and rosette types thrive out of water, providing fish with a place to spawn and hide. Look out for leaves that touch the lighting fixtures—don’t let them burn!

Choose Your Plants Well for Your Aquarium

Chosen your plants? Rinse and check them for snails and small predators.

Remove decaying leaves, stems, and roots. To minimize bruising plant them gently, placing the tall thick plants at the back and sides and the short ones up front. Make sure the shorties aren’t blocked by their tall neighbors for light!

If your fish love digging, place cuttings and young rooted plants behind rocks or other décor so your fish can’t get them.

Plants also reveal when environmental conditions aren’t ideal. Pale, widely spaced leaves signify poor lighting. Yellow leaves reveal a lack of nutrients, black ones indicate pollution.

Aquatic Plant Packs

If your aquarium is 30-gallon or more, the economical way is to buy aquarium plants in bulk. Here are four different types of aquatic plant packs to suit different fish and aquarium setting:

• Riverbed Assortment Plant Package – $39.99
• Low Light Plant Package – $29.99
• Hard Water Plant Package – $29.99
• Jungle Assortment Plant Package – $29.99

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