Live Plants For Your Freshwater Aquarium

Fish love plants, and the fish in your aquarium are no different. Live fresh water aquarium plants are specially chosen when you go to buy the fish – different species like different plants, and at the fish store, they should be able to advise you on which are the best for the kind of fish you choose.

They should match the ones in the fish’s natural habitat – no matter even if the fish has never lived in that native habitat.

There are 10 types of fresh water aquarium plants that you can use:

1. Plants grown by Bulbs

If you have an outdoor fishpond, these are perfect. They tend to grow rather big in a normal indoor aquarium and thus the reason why they do better outside. These will be like the water lilies and aponogeton. If you have a koi pond, make sure to go for these.

2. Floating Plants

Depending on what kind of fish you have, these provide great places for the little fish who may want to hide away for some time, or even those big ones who want to catch a nap once in a while. When you go shopping, ask for Fairy Moss and Driccia.

3. Rhizomes

A rhizome has a thick horizontal stem with leaves sprouting off at the top. It grows and spreads rather fast and will provide great foliage for your fish in little time, both at the top and at the bottom. Your fish will have nooks and crannies to play around in or hide, and they will also be shaded most of the time.

Ask for anubias and African fern – they’re easy to plant. All you do is tie them to driftwood and leave them alone – they’ll grow out.

There are also those that look like a crown – roots beneath and leaves above. They are called rosettes. They’ll cover the water and as they go, they get new growths, getting enough plants in your fresh water aquarium in no time. Some of them, like the Amazon Sword and the Saggitaria, have the added advantage of producing beautiful flowers.

4. Stems

The leaves grow from the nodes in the stem, thus the name stems. The roots will be firmly rooted in the substrate and you can get different varieties. There are some that produce single leaves, while others produce pairs or even multiple leaves from one node.

5. Java Moss or Java Fern

It’s a great starter plant for your aquarium. It’s great because it’s highly adaptable – it can grow at different water pH levels and different types of water as well.

6. Water Wisteria

We all know wisterias for their beautiful flowers. This one is different though – more like the java fern. You should be careful to use very little of it as it consumes a lot of nutrients that could be helping your fish get bigger. Water wisteria is also a good algae fighter (maybe because of its thirst for nutrients).

7. Anubias Nana

This one is a survivor – it can survive in just about any kind of conditions. And it looks good too because its flowers are under water. Your fish won’t eat it, so it’s pretty safe, but you’ll need to attach it firmly to a stone or a tree root or one of the decorations in the tank.

8. lillaeopsis

An excellent choice for your tank, it will do really great especially if it gets the occasional dose of sunlight.

9. Cryptocoryne beckettii.

It’s amphibious –can grow on both water and land. And it comes in a great variety of colors. It will do remarkably well in your aquarium or fish pond.

10. Amazon Sword.

Otherwise known as echinodorus bleheri it’s easy to care for and is amazingly popular as an aquarium plant. It grows fast and also acts as anti-algae.

If you want to have a really natural experience with your fish, live plants is the way to go. Other than just making the fish “feel at home”, they are usually beautiful, they flower and they help to keep nasty algae out. Start with what you feel you can handle; as you get a more experienced hand and get to know both your aquarium and your fish better, you will definitely be able to move on to more complex, more rewarding plants for your fresh water aquarium.