Novice freshwater tropical fishkeeper looking to dive deeper

[SwiftCoffeeOwl]

Hi! I’ve kept fish off and on from childhood onward, but it’s only in the last couple years I’ve gotten serious about doing it well (after realizing how bad I was doing!)

I have one active 20-gallon tropical freshwater tank with an undersized mixed school of small tetras. It’s about as simple as tanks come, and I want to spruce it up before adding a couple more tetras to the school. I’m looking into adding some live low-light, low-maintenance plants to improve the tetra neighborhood, and possibly a few bottom-dwelling fish, shrimp, or little aquatic frogs.

My favorite fish, though, are bettas with their funky personalities and interactivity. I’m planning a 10-15 gallon tank to eventually house a betta and possibly some little invertebrates like cherry shrimp or snails. It will be my first aquascape, and I’m very excited to improve my aquarist skills with this new challenge. I’ll be asking lots of questions to help me!

In the not-near future, I’d love to try pea puffers, but I’ll have my hands full with my tetras and my aquascape project for a while.

 

[Autumnsky]

Stick with the easier plants and they can be simple and amazing! It is not as much a problem if you don't have a too strong light and use low light plants like some Cryptocorynes like red, bronze, green, parva those mentioned in the Beta hardscaping thread, and so many varieties, shapes, colors and sizes of Anubias, I really like A. Coffeefolia, A. nana petite and A. Micro.

Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae), Dwarf Sagittaria or Dwarf Vallisenaria. These are low close to the front of the tank.

And my favorite long plant is Balansae Plant (Cryptocoryne crispatula).

Another easy one is the African Water Fern aka Bolbitis heudelotii, gets big once it gets it's sweet spot. People love to trade things or buy pieces of it and it isn't seen in stores very often.

It is easy to get these plants to be happy in the aquarium for almost all community tank water parameters.