Floating plants, how to grow/buy????

[poindexter]

I have bettas and I dont have thaaaaaaat much money so i dont want to buy a hood for the 5.5 gal tank (i plan to separate it and put both my bettas in there), so i was thinking about growing some floating plants on top because a lot of dust seems to settle on the water surface and its just ugly, plus i love plants too, they look so nice. How do you either grow this stuff, or where do you buy it? Aider Moi! ~dEx

 

[Lateral Line]

Ceratopteris is a genus of aquatic ferns. The most common species are C. cornuta and C. thalictroides. Both are very bouyant, and although in a good substrate will stay rooted, in loose gravel will invariably float to the surface where they continue to live quite happily - C. cornuta especially so.

Both are easy to grow and take a wide range of water conditions, however, both require at least moderate light, C. thalictroides really needs quite bright light. Both plants can get very large, like 12" high or more.

I wonder about their suitability in such a small unlit tank.

Having floating plants will not stop dust from settling on/in your tank - no more than the pot plants I have stop dust settling on my dining room table sadly.

 

[poindexter]

Ive seen a picture of a tank that had a lot of little vegetation floating at the surface, it just looked like small clumps of little leaves, i'm sorry i dont know how to explain it any better , but that was sorta the thing i was going for. what is that stuff or what would be good? oh also my tank is near a window so it would get moderate light (some direct in the morning). (i know ive heard that its a bad place for a tank but i've never once had algae!) thanks! ~dEx

 

[Lateral Line]

You might have seen Lemna minor - Common Duckweed. this form tiny rosettes, (you have to look closely), of small round leaves that lie flat on the surface. Another possibility is one of the Salvinia's, S. natans or S. cucullata, these tend to have slightly larger leaves which under good conditions form up into little pyramids, they also have longer roots hanging down than L. minor.

Any of those would be okay in a small tank.

I don't think I've ever seen Lemna minor for sale - it is such a common plant, it invariably crops up in tanks at some time! One leaf today, 1/4 tank covered by the end of the week, scooping it out by the bucket full after a month.

Salvinias will be available from online Mail order plants firms.

 

[Scarab]

I have hornwart in one of my betta tanks and I didn't pay a penny for it. Went to the LFS and they gave it to me for free!

 

[Tolak]

Hey, Lateral Line, I sure hope ya meant POTTED plants!!

LOL!!

Tolak

 

[poindexter]

so i could probably just ask for a little sprig at the lfs for free eh? or it would be pretty cheap....hm i think it looks so nice, i wish it would crop up in my tank!
~dEx

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> ask for a little sprig at the lfs for free

Depends on your relationship with your lfs - and there's with you. More often than not, something that the LFS would scoop out and throw in a bin suddenly has a price when somebody want's some of it. Sad but true. If they have duckweed in their tanks, you will often get some in the bag when you buy fish.

>>> I sure hope ya meant POTTED plants!!

Huh?

 

[joshua]

if you wanna get ultra low maintainance floating plants try riccia. u can tie them to the bottom too if you want. they look great tied to the bottom cuz there will be oxygen bubbles whihc look like pearls they dun require much light or CO2 either.