Plants for Kevin: Recs?

[carligraceee]

Hey guys- I was wondering if anyone has any floating plant recommendations for Kevin, my Pink orchid betta?

He deserves a little fortress and I think he needs something to jazz up his 6g tank.

He has 5 little mushroom houses and a bridge on top of white rock substrate- he also has three VERY tall light green plants and two short dark green ones.

He likes to lay in the cupping of the leaves on the big ones but I think he would LOVE floating plants to lay on and float around on.


Any recs? Thank you! (make them affordable please!)

 

[OliveFish05]

Water Sprite
Hornwort
Anacharis
Pennywort
Water Lettuce
Water Spangles
Duckweed
Frogbit

i have heard all those are good floating plants, but that duckweed, frogbit, and water lettuce can kinda take over and are hard to work around And that hornwort and and Anacharis are messy. I have Pennywort and it is pretty, but it looks sort of sloppy the way the stems and leaves grow (that may just be because mine have not been grown floating before) Personally I would go with water sprite, it has pretty light green lace-like leaves

 

[mbsqw1d]

floating plants such as frogbit, salvinia, duckweed and water lettuce, float on the surface of the water and so a betta wouldn't be able to rest upon one. Other stem plants that grow ok when not planted in the substrate such as those mentioned above, water sprite, hornwort, anacharis.. are all good for him to rest in. Brazilian Pennywort would work quite well, as the leaves are quite large. Another popular plant used to help bettas rest on is anubias. Anubias isnt a floating plant, rather it is epiphytic and needs to be attached (by its rhizome and roots) to a rock or some wood.

 

[Naughts]

Every betta tank should have floating plants. Betta rest under floating plants, I guess they need to be close to the surface to breathe even when sleeping and they feel safe there as predators can't see them. Our betta loved salvinia.

 

[Abaddon]

Red root floaters (Phyllanthus fluitans) look pretty neat. Frogbit and water lettuce are both very sensitive to water droplets forming on the leaves, so they may not thrive in a covered tank where there's lots of condensation. Salvinia is much more resilient in this respect, as are red roots. Other than that, you can add hornwort (although it grows like an absolute weed and can overrun a tank if not trimmed), guppy grass (similar to hornwort in terms of growth rate and messiness ) or mount a nice broad-leafed anubias or Java fern somewhere close to the surface so he has a place to rest near the top.

 

[Essjay]

Frogbit and water lettuce are both very sensitive to water droplets forming on the leaves, so they may not thrive in a covered tank where there's lots of condensation.

I have frogbit on both my tanks and they have cover glasses which drop a lot of condensation on the plants. It's salvinia I had problems with - the tank I had at the time didn't have cover glasses but during a heatwave condensation formed on the underside of the lid and dripped back into the tank. The salvinia all turned greyish brown and died. At the time I was told that floating plants with hairy leaves like salvinia and water lettuce will rot if the upper surface gets wet while those with smooth leaves (frogbit, duckweed, water sprite) don't rot.

Different tanks, different experiences

 

[Slaphppy7]

Avoid duckweed like the plague....

 

[Essjay]

I once managed to kill duckweed without trying

 

[Slaphppy7]

I once managed to kill duckweed without trying

Well, that's a first!

 

[Essjay]

This is the kind of thing that put me off trying live plants for so many years. I killed every plant I tried


Luckily, I kept on trying and eventually found plants that didn't die

 

[Slaphppy7]

This is the kind of thing that put me off trying live plants for so many years. I killed every plant I tried


Luckily, I kept on trying and eventually found plants that didn't die

What about house plants, do you have any luck with them?

 

[Essjay]

No problems with house plants. I've currently got 7 orchids, 6 lithops, a lot of newly germinated lithops, 3 easter cacti and my son's maranta all doing well

 

[Slaphppy7]

No problems with house plants. I've currently got 7 orchids, 6 lithops, a lot of newly germinated lithops, 3 easter cacti and my son's maranta all doing well

Nice!

 

[KatieMR]

No problems with house plants. I've currently got 7 orchids, 6 lithops, a lot of newly germinated lithops, 3 easter cacti and my son's maranta all doing well

So . . . what you are saying is, if I can't keep house plants alive, I might be able to handle aquatic plants?

 

[Essjay]

Sorry, we got a bit off topic Slaphppy was just amazed that I killed duckweed when everyone else just can't get rid of it.
I can now handle both aquatic and houseplants.

It's just a question if finding the right plant for your tank. Even when a person has several tanks, a plant may grow well in one tank but die in another.
For small tanks, salvinia and frogbit and maybe water lettuce; for larger tanks, water sprite is suitable too.

he also has three VERY tall light green plants and two short dark green ones.

Are these live plants, and if so what kind? Some plants need a lot of light and floating plants cut down the light which isn't good for high-light plants. There are ways of confining a floating plants to one area of a tank so the ones planted in the substrate can get enough light.