Aquarium plants

Aquarium plants you can actually buy, each with the light, CO₂, temperature and placement it needs — check any of them against your tank before you order.

188 entries, grouped by type.

Carpeting plants 18

Low runners that spread sideways across the substrate. They are the ones that need the most light and the most patience.

Stem plants 67

Cut a stem, replant the top: these are the plants you shape the back of a scape with, and the ones that need trimming most often.

Rosette plants 46

Leaves come off a crown sitting in the substrate. They feed through their roots, so they want soil or root tabs.

Epiphytes 23

They grow on rock and wood, never in the substrate — bury the rhizome and it rots. Most of them are low-light and slow.

Mosses 15

Tied or glued onto hardscape. Slow, forgiving, and the usual way to make new wood look settled in.

  • Christmas Moss Vesicularia montagneiLow light · no CO₂ · to 4 cm
  • Fissidens fontanusMedium light · CO₂ helps · to 3 cm
  • Flame Moss Taxiphyllum sp. "Flame"Low light · no CO₂ · to 12 cm
  • Java Moss Taxiphyllum barbieriLow light · no CO₂ · to 5 cm
  • Leptodictyum ripariumLow light · no CO₂ · to 8 cm
  • Marimo Moss Ball Aegagropila linnaeiLow light · no CO₂ · to 10 cm
  • Mini Pellia Riccardia chamedryfoliaLow light · CO₂ helps · to 2 cm
  • Peacock Moss Taxiphyllum sp. "Peacock"Low light · no CO₂ · to 4 cm
  • Pearl Moss Solenostoma tetragonumHigh light · CO₂ helps · to 5 cm
  • Pellia Monosolenium tenerumLow light · no CO₂ · to 4 cm
  • Riccia Riccia fluitansHigh light · CO₂ helps · to 3 cm
  • Spiky Moss Taxiphyllum sp. "Spiky"Low light · no CO₂ · to 5 cm
  • Subwassertang Lomariopsis sp.Low light · no CO₂ · to 4 cm
  • Taiwan Moss Taxiphyllum alternansLow light · no CO₂ · to 4 cm
  • Weeping Moss Vesicularia ferrieiLow light · no CO₂ · to 4 cm

Floating plants 8

They sit on the surface, take nutrients straight from the water and shade everything under them.

  • Azolla Azolla filiculoidesMedium light · no CO₂ · to 1 cm
  • Duckweed Lemna minorLow light · no CO₂ · to 0.5 cm
  • Dwarf Water Lettuce Pistia stratiotesMedium light · no CO₂ · to 10 cm
  • Frogbit Limnobium laevigatumLow light · no CO₂ · to 5 cm
  • Giant Duckweed Spirodela polyrhizaLow light · no CO₂ · to 0.5 cm
  • Red Root Floater Phyllanthus fluitansLow light · no CO₂ · to 2 cm
  • Salvinia minimaLow light · no CO₂ · to 2 cm
  • Water Sprite Ceratopteris thalictroidesLow light · no CO₂ · to 40 cm

Bulb plants 11

Grown from a bulb dropped on the substrate; they throw up a few large leaves and then rest.