TFA101

Chickadee posted a sticky about that. I'm using gravel for that reason too.

chickadee

Most sand is about the same size as some types of betta food pellets. Bettas can and do sometimes mistake it for food that has fallen to the floor of the tank and will eat it and cannot pass it and will keep consuming it until they are full of it and die from being stuffed with it. I unfortunately found this out the hard way.

Rose

COBettaCouple

I like the flat glass marbles since they are too big to eat, too smooth to tear fins and we like how they look under the tank lights.

HatchetHaven

Marbles would crush plant stems though... So natural gravel would be my option - like in my Betta tank.

COBettaCouple

I found the marbles to work well when we had live plants that needed to be anchored in the substrate.

HatchetHaven

Do you mean anubias, Java fern and Java moss or other live plants like stems?

COBettaCouple

Yea, and some of those bulbs you buy at the stores.

HatchetHaven

Apontogemon (I think that's how you spell it?) is pretty cool actually. I don't think ctem plants would do well, you can imagain the stems being crushed.

COBettaCouple

Yea, I think the root system flourished with the space the marbles created, making it easier for roots to shoot out. They had huge root systems, but sadly we lost all the live plants when we lost Sora and had to sterilize everything in his tank.