Although some owners of aquariums may not spend much time on making it the best they can, there are others who are really passionate about giving their pet fish an environment as close as possible to their natural surroundings. Most often people use plastic aquarium plants only because of the need to economize. The plastic aquarium plants of today look very much like the real ones and they might fool many a human viewer, but what about your fish? Can they tell the difference?

When you go to the pet shop, you will see a lot of plastic aquarium plants which look very alluring under the incandescent lights. They tell you that they are exactly like the live aquarium plants. But are they really? Once you buy them and bury the roots into the gravel of your fish tank, you will find that they will always stay the same shade of color, whether they were green, reddish, turquoise or brown. There will be neither leaf decay nor new shoots sticking out once in a while. The background will forever be the same, static and uninteresting.

Live aquarium plants give the fish an environment closer to their natural surroundings as well as other benefits that plastic plants just cannot give. Live aquatic plants have their own beauty; looking after
them and watching them flourish and propagate can be as appealing and satisfying as rearing goldfish.

Also, live aquarium plants maintain the quality of water as they play the role of a filter, drawing out the excess nutrients in the water. Live aquatic plants house bacteria which convert the waste that the fish produce into nitrates which in turn serves as fertilizer to the plants. Since the live aquatic plants absorb the nutrients there will not be much left for the growth of algae. Fish generate carbon dioxide which plants take in and then use to generate oxygen that is required by your fish.

Also, since quite a few fish feed on plants, live aquarium plants become a source of food for them. If you have no live aquarium plants in your tank, then you’re depriving them of a sumptuous dinner. So make sure you replace those plastic aquatic plants with live aquarium plants now if you want your fish to be happy and healthy and to lay eggs to produce your next generation of pet fish.

For the sake of your fish, go for the “authentic” plants. =)

David