30 Gallon Tank Floating decor for the top of the tank?

[Candace]

Hello all, I'm hesitant about getting floating plants because I already have what appears to be really small MTS and I don't want to risk pond/bladder snails too (I loathe those, but weirdly I don't mind MTS or ramshorns too much lol). I'm thinking about getting hatchet fish or gertrudae and want them to be comfortable so I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for fake floating plants or decorations? I do have Vallisneria and I can let some of those grow out since I usually trim them but I don't feel like that's enough coverage.

The tank is a 36 gallon bowfront and the stock is as follows:

14 x Neon tetras (the real OG's)
1 x Mystery snail (the literal lady killer unfortunately)
2 x Nerite snails (the egg laying banes of my existence)

 

[LlamaRobber]

There are fake floating plants on Amazon but they don't look the best. You could always try to source real floating plants and do a snail dip. There are tons of DIY ways to do it. Or, if you really want to make sure you don't have snails, you can separate them in a different aquarium or container. You could also run new plants under running water to remove any snails, then place them in a quarantine tank/Container, best bet would be doing a dip and rinse, Imo

I found these fake water lettuce The Pond Guy Artificial Water Lettuce but its way pricier than the real thing.

 

[Fishfur]

You might consider Asian Watergrass - Hygroryza aristata.

It can be purchased tissue cultured so no risk of snails or anything. I think it’s extremely attractive and unlike duckweeds, it is very easily controlled. So far as I’m aware, ADA is the only tissue culture source at this time.

The image gives you an idea of what it looks like. That’s a young water lettuce in the upper left corner. I love the corded texture on the Watergrass leaves, which have a silk like lustre that’s not obvious in the image.

What look vaguely like weird corn cobs are the swollen leaf petioles, which are full of air that keeps the leaves afloat.

It has rather nice looking fine green roots that are not super thick and trimming off the growing tips makes it branch pretty freely.

The oldest leaves will die off and depending on your preferences can be trimmed off or left to let nature take its course.

Eventually you can end up with lengths of bare stem at the back of the branches and it may be necessary to trim off the bare stems now & then.