plants and cycling

[inari]

This friday I finally am able to get InarI a 5 gallon tank with all the works!!!! I'm so happy!!! anyway, I would like to get him some plants as well someone suggested something with broad leaves so he can sleep on them (or w/e it is that they do at night) Could someone please name off a few that are realitively inexpensive and have the nice broad leaves that Bettas can lay on if they want...also before I get going on the tedious process of cycling....should I cycle the tank with plants, w/o plants or just wait until I get InarI in his new home to consider plants. I know its a lot thanx all

brent

 

[chickadee]

I would wait a while before adding the plants as they can be a little sensitive to the ammonia and nitrites as well as the fish and you can put them in as the cycle process progresses. Some good low light broad leaf plants for bettas to sleep on include Sword Plants, Java Fern, and they will also like Duckweed (it just floats on top of the water - so just get enough to cover no more than 1/6 of the tank surface). Some shorter plants they like are Anubias Nana, Anubias Coffeeola, Wisteria, Java Moss (kind of messy - has to be tied down to a rock or something). My bettas favorite plant grows from a bulb and is called a Madagascar Lace Plant and is a beautiful plant but takes up a lot of room and takes some care. You can look up most of the plants on That site tells you what the plants need for lighting, where they need to be planted in the tank and what they are like and in most cases has good pictures of the plants of them.. Most of the ones I listed above should be pictured there.

Rose


The pictures below have most of the plants I mentioned in them. Marty has the Anubias plants in the front of his tank and NoeL has a Sword Plant in the Back of his tank and The Madagascar Lace Plant on the other side of the tank.

 

[inari]

I actually like the ones that look like parts have been cut out of them on... the in the pic just above the bottom one

 

[chickadee]

Everyone likes those and they are not that hard to start.  They are Madagascar Lace Plants and they are grown from a bulb.  I think I got mine from .  He doesn't charge a whole lot for postage and his prices aren't too bad.  It does take a few weeks to grow, and you have to pull off the really long leaves or they take over the tank but they eventually quit coming up.

You can also buy them full grown from .  Their prices are quite high and the postage is kind of high so if you have the time and patience, I would go the other way.

Rose