# 20G planted w/ mystery plants



## OSUJillyBean (Dec 30, 2008)

Last night I went to my LFS (Petsmart) to get plants for my tank. They didn't have any growing submerged but they were selling some terrarium plants in a tube as aquarium plants. I assume they're all going to die but it was a fun way to blow $20 leftover from Christmas ...









This is my current setup (it needs a background). Some of the plants are fake, but until I get some decently-growing live stuff I want to leave them in there. 










An onion plant I gerw from a bulb (also purchased at Petsmart, this is the only bulb of a pack of 12 that didn't rot). Is it planted too deeply? The leaves are all a little squared-off because I cut off the damaged parts. Not sure I did that correctly or not.










My tank's only non-plant inhabitants: Pedro the betta and about half-a-dozen ghost shrimp. His tail has seen better days.










No idea what this stuff is. It's pretty tiny and has very fine roots coming off from the leafy part. I had to cut off more bad leaves and gave the tips of the roots a tiny snip as well. I've read this will help promote growth. Behind it you can see what Petsmart was calling "white ribbon plants". I've read they refuse to survive under water so we'll see how this goes. (And yes - they also got pruned).

















They were selling this stuff as "kyoto grass" I believe. It's small but I love the way it looks. Hopefully it doesn't all rot and die now that it's living underwater. 



Anyone got any suggestions on care of my plants? I gave them 4 tsp of Tetra's plant food (per directions on the bottle). Would also love to know what they're actually called.


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## petlover516 (Nov 12, 2008)

your in for bad luck if u plan on having a community tank. male bettas aren't community fish. i'd say u should keep looking for aquarium plants.


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## Dino (Dec 30, 2008)

The white ribbon plants are not aquatic.
They are a type of land fern.
As well, the green and white striped plants you have planted at the back of the first picture are also land plants.
The onion plant looks fine and appears to be planted at the right depth.

The kyoto grass I am unsure of.
It could be any of several aquatic or land plants.


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

The "kyoto grass" is Ophiopogon Japonica. The onion is Crinum onion.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Some bettas will do fine in a community tank, depends on the personality of each. In a week or so I can fix you up with some plants. If you come to the meeting on the 11th I will bring them then. Or you can pick them up here.


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## OSUJillyBean (Dec 30, 2008)

petlover516 said:


> your in for bad luck if u plan on having a community tank. male bettas aren't community fish. i'd say u should keep looking for aquarium plants.


I wasn't going to keep him in there forever. I'm a newb to aquariums but I've read tanks must cycle for several months before you add a heavy fish load to it but you start this cycle with a single fish. 

Or am I misinformed?? 

Guess I need to take the ribbon plants out if they're not aquatic. Darn! And I was hoping they'd work.


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## Fishboydanny1 (Jun 13, 2008)

bettas are fine in a community tank in most cases. as long as you have NO fin nippers, and you don't have an overly aggresive male (rare), then he will be fine.


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## OSUJillyBean (Dec 30, 2008)

I'm not planning on keeping the betta in a community tank (unless the ghost shrimp count?) This is a new tank and he's in there to help the tank start cycling. 

He has started hunting down and eating the shrimp though.


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## petlover516 (Nov 12, 2008)

bettas are not for cycling a tank. aquatic plants, a used sponge filter, and used gravel will make a tank cycle very quickly. if u have to use fish, go with platies or zebra danios.


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## OSUJillyBean (Dec 30, 2008)

I tried platies - they all died within 24 hours of getting them home.


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## Fishboydanny1 (Jun 13, 2008)

why aren't bettas good for cycling? they seem to survive total weekly water changes just fine.....


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