Planted Betta Tank? Plants?

[Katieasaur]

I'm thinking that I want to try live plants in my aquarium with my male betta to make him feel better and make it look prettier lol but I have never dont plants in an aquarium
any suggestions for a 5.5 gal tank

 

[lilfishie]

Cabomba is generally a good starter plant and doesn't require much care

 

[Glegorly]

I'm thinking that I want to try live plants in my aquarium with my male betta to make him feel better and make it look prettier lol but I have never dont plants in an aquarium
any suggestions for a 5.5 gal tank

Elodea Densa (aka Elodea, Canadian Pond Weed) is a nice plant to add, it should be available in most fish stores and you can buy it on eBay. Another one I like is Vallisneria Spiralis (aka Vallis, twisted vallis) it grows super quick and needs pruning every so often, but one tank I used to have was filled with a maze of vallis that grew right up to the water surface and it looked really nice, especially seeing my Betta weave in and out of the tall leaves and watching them lightly swaying in the filter current with small bits of light filtering through them.

And you can never go wrong with a few Moss Balls. These are also available on eBay, and not only look great, they're pretty good mini filters as well!

If you do find a plant species you like, do a bit of research into it to find out what lighting it needs and to check its truly aquatic. You'll save yourself a lot of money in the long run!

 

[Katieasaur]

ugh never elodea hahaha, ive done so many biological experiments with that stuff i hope i never see it agn lol

and maybe im just really tired but when they say like bright or low light or whatever, how do you know if you have bright light or not plus the sunshine that ends up on the tanks occasionally

ooo camboba is pretty lol

 

[lilfishie]

if your tank has a light see if you can see what wattage it is then we can work out the wpg (watts per gal)

my Cabomba grows wild at 1wpg, its a good job i have 3 tanks to spread it between

i also did the elodea experiment and it drove me mad

 

[Katieasaur]

10 watts on 5.5 gal
and 15w on 10 gal (might be switching out to a diff light for 2 10 watt bulbs if I move my females into it)

 

[lilfishie]

plenty of light for Cabomba then plus others, you could try java ferns, moss balls and amazon swords too, i have no problems with them and have less light

 

[Channti]

I've always had issues with getting cabomba to live in my tanks. I've never been able to keep the stuff alive. My betta tank (with basic incandescent lighting) has crypt. Lutea and crypt. wendtii, with a couple moss balls.

 

[ReMz]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/10-plants-and-planted-tanks/

Have fun reading thru this section for hours once you start with plants. There is a lot to learn and its a blast.

Low light tanks with bettas is where I started.

Java moss
Java fern
Anubias
Crypts

All will grow under the most basic lighting and will flourish with higher light (some sunlight included).