What aquatic plants are suitable for a small fish tank? Latest recommendations

Aquatic plants have graceful shapes and diverse colors, elegant and charming. Planted in an aquarium and decorated with river sand, driftwood and the like, they look beautiful and tasteful, becoming one of the best decorations and ornamental features in today's aquariums, and together with aquatic animals, substrate sand and water they can jointly create a circulating ecosystem. Now let's take a look at what aquatic plants to keep in a small fish tank!

Java Fern

Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus) is a fern of the family Polypodiaceae, with green leaves 20-40 cm long, sporangia on the underside of the leaves, and strip-like rhizomes with black or dark brown adventitious roots growing below. It is highly adaptable and easy to manage, often used in aquatic plant aquascaping, and can also be grown emersed in high-humidity environments. Because its leaves are tough and have a bitter taste, it is suitable for beautifying aquariums stocked with herbivorous fish.

Anubias

Anubias is a type of aquatic plant in the family Araceae distributed in the West Africa region. Compared with other aquatic plants, it can be said to be very resilient and easy to plant, but if it is planted carelessly and haphazardly, rhizome rot and dwarfing will gradually appear, eventually leading to withering. It likes ample sunlight, water hardness should be slightly higher, nitrate content should be low, the substrate must have sufficient base fertilizer, and the suitable growth temperature is 22-30°C.

Hornwort

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum), also known as fine grass, fish grass, soft grass, pine algae and so on, is a perennial herbaceous submerged aquatic plant of the genus Ceratophyllum in the family Ceratophyllaceae. It has broad requirements for water temperature but is relatively sensitive to freezing, dying within a few days in ice. It likes nitrogen and grows better when the inorganic nitrogen content in the water is high. It can grow normally in water with a pH of 7.1-9.2, but a pH of 7.6-8.8 is most suitable. It grows rapidly under 5-10% light intensity, but strong light will cause hornwort to die.

Vallisneria

Vallisneria (Vallisneria natans) is a perennial stemless submerged herbaceous aquatic plant of the genus Vallisneria in the family Hydrocharitaceae, commonly known as noodle grass, dragon whisker grass, carrying pole grass and so on. It has stolons, basal leaves, and narrow ribbon-like leaf blades. Leaf length varies with water depth, and the leaves are emerald green and semi-transparent, standing gracefully in the water. It is fairly adaptable to water quality, prefers weakly alkaline water, does not like high temperatures, is cold-tolerant, likes light, and often grows in streams, rivers, ponds and lakes.

Narrow-leaf Amazon Sword

Narrow-leaf Amazon Sword is a small marsh plant native to Brazil, with lanceolate leaves 10-15 cm long and 1 cm wide, almost no petiole, and an overall height of about 20 cm. It produces 2-3 spiral-shaped flowers about 1.5 cm in size with six pistils. The leaves are green and firm, with a clear main vein and less obvious lateral veins. It reproduces by budding, producing daughter plants on the reproductive stems of the mother plant. It likes strong light, with 20-25°C being most suitable.