Floating Plant Recommendation

[Darkehorse]

Hi,

I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank and I'm looking to find the best floating plant that would provide some shade/shelter for my fish. Ideally I'd like it to be resilient, easy to grow, and with a limited root system. In other words, I'd like it to take up as little of the top layer of the tank as possible while providing the best shade/shelter.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations!
-Darke

P.S. Keep in mind that I've never kept any aquatic plants before so I'm a total newbie.

 

[fishboy619]

amazon frog bit is the best floating plant ive found, but it has long roots and grows wide.

 

[seanyt66]

hi

Salvinia Natans - my fish love it and its great at keeping my nitrate levels down.

regards


Sean

 

[thefirethief]

Duckweed sounds exactly what you are looking for. Excellent water purifier too.

 

[Annaconda]

Id have to say duckweed too, It grows great. And looks pretty good too, I have it in my frog tank, and other fish tank, the fish and frogs even eat it.

 

[Darkehorse]

Folks,

Thanks for the recommendations. I think I may try a little of each!

-Darke

 

[wendywc]

I just float hornwort in my betta tank. My guy loves it... he builds big bubblenests with it. I had duckweed, but it would get everywhere. Hornwort has been growing quick and easy for me.

 

[lljdma06]

hi

Salvinia Natans - my fish love it and its great at keeping my nitrate levels down.

regards


Sean

I agree, either that or Salvinian minima. Great little plants. It is a type of floating aquatic fern. There is a rhizome, though it is hard to make out.

I used to use these in my betta tanks and wish I had some for my 8g and 2.5g, but I can't get them here, and I'm not going to pay to have them shipped.

llj

 

[baboo_jenge]

Duckweed (Lemna minor) is the fastest growing plant ever.
I did my formal lab report in university with this plant.
I started with mere 4 little plants in a testtube with nothing but tap water.
One week later, i had 74 plants.

I dun think any plant in the universe can match the reproduction rate of duckweed.

Plus they are very sensitive to salt, ph and heavy metals. So if they suddenly stop growing, u know there is something wrong.

 

[Darkehorse]

I got my plants. I got Salvinia Natans (water velvet), Azolla caroliniana (Fairy Moss), and Duckweed and Greater Duckweed. As a bonus, I also received some Water Lettuce plants (Pistia stratiotes). These had longer roots than I wanted but they are nice looking plants, and my shrimp likes to ride on them and pick algae off. After I read about Duckweed and it's ability to grow exponentially so I decided not to put any in the tank. To be sure some got in there anyway, but not a whole lot. Hopefully the other plants will strangle it out, if not I'll start picking them out by hand. I was most impressed by the Water Velvet. The plant itself almost reminds me of a venus fly traps, as the leaves of the plant bend toward each other and it has little fuzzy hairs that might be able to trap insects (on mine I did see some dead gnats seemingly 'trapped' in the hairs even after I had washed them off). The fairy moss was very pretty but very delicate and small. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get my Marimo moss balls in. My fish love the shade provided by the plants. They are much more active now. Thanks for the recommendations.

-Darke

 

[14gtr14]

oh i wouldn't bet on the other plants strangling the duckweed out! I did the same in my 45 gal. Put water lettuce, salvinia natans and indian fern in the tank after washing. About 5-6 water lettuce, 2 or 3 indian fern and about the same of salvinia...so at most there was about 3 duckweed plants!...a month later stuff was bloody everywhere!! so was the water lettuce tbh, but that's sellable, i just dumped the duckweed in the compost bin!

Ye salvinia is really nice and when shrimp hold onto the rooots of the water lettuce and get blown around in the current is great!