[KC]

I am looking for floating plants that look good from inside the tank. My lfs has some that look okay top down but underwater they look horrid. I have looked online for floating plants but they all give me that top down view, which doesn't help me very much.

Does anyone know a site with pictures of floating plants how they appear in a tank or can recommend some really nice floaters that will hand down attractively?

 

[Laurel]

Dunno about many other than duckweed which is pretty much impossible to get rid of once you add it. Try checking livebearer or danio sites, they use plants for breeding. If you get vals(they plant in the substrate) they'll grow up above to the top of the tank. Here's some that I just put in my tank. They should continue growing.

 

[748johnd]

Hornwort is a nice floating plant. There is also crystalwort (riccia fluitans), elodea (egeria densa) and najas graminer. I'd stay away from duckweed as Laurel says because it is hard to get rid of once it becomes well established. Jungle val is an option because although it is a rooted plant the leaves can grow to 4 or 5 feet long and will float on the surface of the water.

 

[PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn]

there are a few other species of floating plants.

theres the water hyacinth, theres several species, theres also the floating ferns (Azola filiculoides) or indian ferns (Ceratopteris thalictroides) also frogbit

I typed in floating plants into google, and got this list

Spirodela polyrhiza
Azolla species
Ceratophyllum demersum
Ceratopteris cornuta
Cladophora aegagropila
Eichornia crassipes
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Lemna Minor
Limnobium laevigatum
Ludwigia helminthorrhiza
Najas indica
Nymphoides aquatica
Pistia stratiotes
Riccia fluitans
Salvinia species
Trapa natans

however some of these will need to be rooted into the substrate and send runners up to the surface.

 

[kornphlake]

I have some Pistia Stratiotes, it's fairly attractive from below the water line, all you see are roots, but it's certainly more interesting than duckweed. I've also got some riccia fluitans, I like the way it looked at first, but now that it's filling in a little I'm not so sure how useful it is as a floating plant, I'd prefer it to be rooted.

Java Moss is kind of interesting, it can float or it can be tied to rocks or driftwood, it would float below the surface rather than floating on top of the water though.

 

[ArcticCatRider]

well, if you live near any nice size arts and crafts store, such as Michaels, or somewhere like that, go there.They have all different kinds of plants.

These pictures are actually almost 3 months old, but here's a few, with the plant I added, as a floater.I got it from Michael's all on one big plastic thing, then cut strips off, and tied strands together with fishing line.

Also, Since then, I have rearranged my rocks a little, and stuffed some plant strands behind the rocks, while 1 or 2 float freely.I think it looks great.cheap too, like $8, and, tada.!

 

[KC]

Isn't Java moss hard to get rid of too?

 

[PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn]

java moss is slow growing, and fairly easy to remove.

duckweed isn't that hard to lose either IMO, a few days of netting all you can find and the jobs done

 

[kornphlake]

Java moss can be hard to prune, it wants to fall all apart and float everywhere, but if you've just got one clump and want to remove it all you have to do is yank it out. Riccia is kind of the same way but very fragile, it wants to break into a thousand pieces any time you touch it.