Easiest plants for beginners

[Lady Hobbs]

I just copied this from a site and thought it might be of interest to anyone (including me) who is planting a tank for the first time.


Bread & Butter plants. Some plants are physically sturdy, easily adapt to various chemical and temperature conditions, and do well with standard aquarium lighting. These make great starter plants for newer hobbyists, and are a fine choice for any hobbyist looking for plants for his "Fish Tank". Popular species include Anacharis (AKA Elodea or Egeria species), Hygrophila polysperma, Water Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis), most Vallisneria species, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides), Amazon Swordplants (Echinodorus species), Java Fern (Microsorium pteropus, Banana plants (Nymphoides aquaticum), Onion plants (Crinum species) and the floating plant Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum).
Toast & Jelly plants? A number of other fairly common aquarium plants are somewhat more fragile and/or a little fussier about requirements, but can be kept by most hobbyists with a minimum of effort. These would include Bacopa species, Cabomba species, Didiplis deandra, Giant Hygro (Hygrophila corymbosa), Ambulia (Limnophila species), Red Ledwigia (Ludwigia species), Myriophyllum species, Rotala indica, Sagittaria species, Aponogeton species, and Cryptocoryne species, Pigmy Chain Swords (Echinodorus tenellus) and Anubias species.
Truffle Soufflé plants? Some plants are best left to those with a real green thumb and a willingness to spend a little extra time and money to set up a real "plant tank" with extra lighting, and possibly CO2 injection and other gadgetry. These would include the very challenging Madagascar Lace Plant (Aponogeton madagascariensis), Barclaya longifolia, Alternanthera species, Pennywort (Hydrocotyle species), Cardamine species, any of the red Rotala species, and Baby Tears (Glossostigma elatinoides).

More information on easy plants for beginnings in the plant section in the left hand menu.

[*Sarah*]

Nice post, I'll have to print it and take it with me when I'm shopping for plants :)

[Lady Hobbs]

Finally. A listing of the easier plants. I will sticky this so it will hang around longer since planting seems to be a hot topic lately.

[minabird]

This is a great list. My experience doesn't match up with theirs tho. They have banana plants as being bread & butter and I've read posts from others how easy this plant is to grow. Had 3 of them die on me within a couple months; finally found one that has lived longer than 4 months. And they have the red rotala species as being difficult to grow and all of the sites agree, but I think I have the Rotala macrandra and it's been growing great for me with no special requirements. Leave it to me to be the exception to this list. At least the ones I haven't had much luck with are the bread and butter ones, which are readily available and pretty cheap comparted to some of the more difficult ones to grow, which are also harder to find and more expensive.

[Chrona]

Yeah, from my experience, wisteria hasn't been that easy (sure it spreads, but the bottom leaves are all brownish/green from lack of light I'm assuming. My anubias isl doing amazing though, and I think they should fall under the bread and butter category, as well as Java moss (which should technically fall under "So easy you'll hate it") Swords.....meh, I would say they are kind of in the middle, because they really need quite a bit of light. My sword grows, but not well in 1.5 watts/gallon. Interestingly enough, a ludwigia in my tank (not sure of the exact specifies) is doing VERY well, and after multiple clippings and side shoots, has gone from 3 stems to a nice thick patch.

I personally would group plants based on how much light they need + what kind of water they require, as light is the limiting factor most of the time. You could say "Easy" plants such as anubias, java fern, java moss, crypts, which all require very little light are easy because you can use the light that comes with your tank on them and they'll do great.

[Severus]

Very nice list hobbs. I am thinking about slowly adding a live plant or two to my 55 gallon. Obviously starting with amazon sword or java fern. lol

[sergo]

i will add a little here, my Aponogeton is the fastest growing plant in my tank with my little 30 watts of light. it outgrows the anacharis by far and has taken over one corner of my tank. the ferns seem to grow pretty slow along with micro sword and my bananna plants are new but seem to be coming around now.

[Lady Hobbs]

I'd like to try the onion plant for my Silver Dollars. Heard they don't care for it much. I can't believe there's anything mine wouldn't eat tho.

Minabird, I think you were just too good to your plants. Probably scared them getting all that love and affection.

Maybe you can recommend something that's a tough leafed plant that's hard for fish to eat. I know they tear into romaine lettuce but leave the center of each leaf as they can't get thru it.

[jweintraub]

That's a great post! Good information that I copied and pasted into a Word document for reference later when needed. I sure wish I had this list when i started my 20G and knew NOTHING about which plants to choose.

[minabird]

I'd like to try the onion plant for my Silver Dollars. Heard they don't care for it much. I can't believe there's anything mine wouldn't eat tho.

Minabird, I think you were just too good to your plants. Probably scared them getting all that love and affection.

Maybe you can recommend something that's a tough leafed plant that's hard for fish to eat. I know they tear into romaine lettuce but leave the center of each leaf as they can't get thru it.

How about plastic.....hehehe

I actually did run into a post on one of the plant forums that had suggestions on plants that most fish stay away from. I'll see if I can find it again and pass that info along to you and any others that have plant-eating fish.