What good live plants should i use?

Question

i have 4 guppies and a cory catfish in a 10gal. i have a light and i want real plants that can hide, protect my fish and decorate my tank.

Answer 1

There are tons of great plants for freshwater community fish tanks! The thing it really depends on is what kind of lighting do you have and how much care do you want to put into your plants? There are plants for low light, moderate light and high light. There are easy care plants, and there are plants that require fertilizers and CO2 injections. I will list some of my favorite, low light, easy care plants. These are just "throw them in your tank and they will grow" plants.  :D

Java moss - this is a great plant. It looks like a mass of fuzzy green strings, but you can squash it, tie it to driftwood, pile rocks on it, stretch it and wrap it around tall decorations or just let it drift around and it just grows like mad. When the tips turn white, that means they're sprouting new growth. Fry love to hide in it.

Java Fern - This is a tall, wavy plant you just stick in the gravel. It tends to turn brown and look like it's dying at first, but don't worry, it'll come back better than ever!

Anacharis - Also known as water weed. It's long strings with little leaves coming off of it like green flower petals. You can plant it or just let it float. It grows well either way.

Water sprite - Comes in broad leaved or fine leaved varieties. Can be planted or floated. If floated it tends to grow long hairy roots that fish love to hide and play in. If planted it sprouts tall clusters of leaves. Reproduces by sprouting little baby plants on leaf edges.

Anubias Nana - Sometimes called a rubber plant because it's so tough! With nice broad leaves, this plant looks great. It reproduces by splitting the rhyzome. It can be planted in the gravel or potted. It grows slow, but it won't break if your pleco sucks on it's leaves, either.

Crypts - A variety of robust plants that are slow growing but hardy. These can be planted in the gravel of a tank or potted. Most reproduce by splitting the rhyzome.

Check out the site below for some more great aquatic plants or to order some online.

Answer 2

The question I need to ask you is, what are you willing to supply to your plants? There are many like java ferns or moss, anubias, etc that don't need CO2 addition, but then again there are some that need lots of extra CO2 production in the tank. You will also have to think about lighting, can you provide enough lighting for high light plants? If not then getting low-medium light plants is recommended. Unfortunately 10 gallons is too small for any plants I would love to recommend to you, they all grow too large. Check out this plant guide and look at different plant profiles, you probably want to stick with dwarf plants or ones like java ferns, java moss, or anubias.

Answer 3

"Assuming you've got pretty weak lighting and want to take the low-tech route (you do), in addition to Ghost Shrimp Fan's list, lilies, Aponogetons, Hornwort, Banana Planty, Onion Plant, Hygrophila, Swords, Pennywort, and Bacopa would all be good choices."

Answer 4

definately java moss it is hardy and proct and provide plenty of hiding spaces for your fish and their fry.