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What's your favorite aquatic plant?

Hello TF members:) I've recently gone out from planted tanks into African cichlids. It's good and bad at the same time.
Good: less maintenance, African cichlids are easier to breed and sell, does well with the naturally hard water in Lathrop.
Bad: less plant options because of high ph(7.5 -8) and hard water, can't keep the more cooler looking species of plants.
If I want to have a soft water sp. I usually just put it in my 2.5 gal betta bow.(No space for bigger plants:cry:)

Thinking about the loss of option plant-wise made me think "I wonder what people like...". That lead to this:)
Please post the sp.s you like and why! Please no "I like plastic plants because :blahblah9xm: ...."; lets try to keep this a live plant thread.

I'll post my favorite(s) later when this thread gets posts. For now, let's have fun talking about our favorite live plant sp.s! :grin:
 
My favorites for those conditions would be Java Fern and Anubias sp. Many Africans will tear up plants, and these two generally aren't bothered much. Anubias have very hard leaves which can take a pounding, and apparently Java tastes bad.
 
Anubias are probably my favorite plants. I love how hardy they are (african cichlids are a lot like goldfish in the dirtyness and tearing-up plant regards). I also LOVE the way they look grown on driftwood. If I ever make an african biotope it will be filled with anubias attached to driftwood. My second favorite plant is probably the mosses like java and Xmas. Again, I love the way they look attached to wood. I also like them for their usefulness in shrimp tanks. My third favorite is probably the crypts. If you can't tell I like low-light plants. I just think a tank of crypts looks amazing and they get along great with my acidic, softwater fishes. Another thing I love about all three of these plants is that you can find them ranging from tiny to huge! I have a C. spiralis that reaches the top of my 29 gal!

(This made me realize I should probably post up pictures of my tanks here...)
 
For me it would be Anubias and Bolbitis. I'm still bummed that my Bolbitis crashed.
 
Downoi hands down. many of the Bucephalus species are attractive too--those need to go into mass production, stat.

oh, dont get me started on hygrophila pinnatifida...
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My favorite species would be the nymphaeas. Nymphaea rubra, N. stellata, N. pubescens, N. micrantha, N. rubra, and N. zenkeri 'green' and 'red'. Each one of them has their own array of colors and patterns. They are really easy to keep and is one of the most attractive genus imo. So far, I have stellata, rubra, pubescens, and zeenkeri 'green'. It's a shame that lfs usually sell them for $12+.
 
Water Sprite
 
I still love Aldrovanda. It doesn't get much better than a bug-muching aquatic sibling of Drosera and Dionaea. Too bad most of the species of Aldrovanda are extinct.
 
My fave. aquatic is Glossostigma not sure how it would do in harder water, low light or without CO2 and I dunno if big cichlids would mess with it but I love the "lawn" it grows into when treated right.
 
  • #10
I love Crypts. I have Tanganyikan cichlids and am growing or have grown the following in my tanks successfully:

C. wendtii, C. usteriana, C. hudoroi, C. affinis, C. spiralis, C. crispatula var. balansae, C. x willisii, C. parva, C. pontederiifolia, C. moehlmannii, C. walkeri, C. beckettii, and C. undulata.

Limestone regions in Indonesia, Philippines, and other countries are where most of the above plants are found.
 
  • #11
I like the way brazilian micro sword looks as a ground cover.. saggitarius subulata looks cool too and makes neat shaped leaves as the water level drops (but im sure you wont be doing that with your cichlids :0o: )

anubias and amazon swords are my other favs. Ive kept all of these in a cichlid tank before
 
  • #12
Thanks for sharing your favorite aquatic plants, everyone!
 
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