Plants in the aquarium: artificial or natural?
In the vast majority of pet stores, artificial plant displays immediately catch the eye, while representatives of living flora, if present, are in short supply. Very often, beginner aquarists wonder which plants to choose for their aquarium: artificial or natural? Plants are present in almost all amateur aquariums, except those where the presence of aquatic flora is impractical for biological reasons.
Take, for example, the appearance of live plants. The leaves of live plants have an extensive color palette, ranging from various shades of green to exotic white, yellow, brown, and red tones. No less diverse are the shapes of bushes, leaves, their spatial orientation, texture, and venation pattern. All these nuances are often impossible to reproduce even by the most precise presses. Both have their pros and cons. Let’s try to figure this out.
Nowadays, a great variety of artificial plants of quite good quality have appeared on the market. They are made of both plastic and silk in all colors and sizes, and are practically indistinguishable from real ones. Modern polymers and dyes allow the creation of the most delicate, diverse, and incredible “plants”. Many plastic plants are in a “blooming” state. Achieving the flowering of live aquarium plants is by no means easy (if only because the absolute majority of them bloom only in an emergent state). Let’s say you will hardly find anywhere a live and healthy plant with blue, yellow, or black leaves, however, if your eccentric inclinations require precisely such an aesthetic solution, then feel free to purchase a plastic bush. Have you ever seen glowing plants? Most likely not. But in a pet store, such are by no means a rarity.
A definite advantage of artificial plants is the ease of care for them. Organizing an underwater garden from plastic plants, an aquarist can be said to form it for a long time. Having worked for a day or two, you are subsequently freed from chores in the field of aquascaping. Unlike live plants, artificial ones do not grow, do not die, and are not nibbled, and accordingly, do not spoil the appearance of the aquarium.
In addition, you can be sure that your plants will not be eaten by fish. Artificial plants will not grow larger than you need. Lighting will only be necessary if you want to admire your fish. If you leave the lighting on for a long time, algae can grow on them, just like on decorations.
Natural plants, like any other living organism, are susceptible to algae invasions. And fighting this evil is a very laborious task and, frankly speaking, in many cases ineffective. Algae, it is true, do not disdain to use the surface of synthetic plants as a substrate, but cleaning the latter is very simple — just take them out of the aquarium and wash them thoroughly with hot water, even using chemicals. Such treatment is impossible with natural plants.
When using synthetics in the aquarium, it is also easier to deal with carriers of fish diseases, since you can safely use pharmaceutical and various chemical preparations without the risk of destroying all the vegetation. Moreover, by buying plastic, you are guaranteed to avoid the probability of bringing some infection “attached” to plants into your home body of water — pathogenic microorganisms, insect larvae, snail eggs, etc.
Indeed, what could be simpler: pulled out the “bush”, rinsed under warm water, cleaned with a soft brush, and put it back. At the same time, basic plastic mounts for artificial plants can be replaced with suction cups, which are easily hidden in the substrate. As an alternative solution, we can suggest gluing plants to other accessories, such as stones using aquarium silicone, which can also be found in specialized stores. Plastic plants can injure fish that like to stay in thickets.
However, nothing lasts forever under the moon, and you will periodically have to replace your “thickets” with new ones, with silk ones needing replacement more often than plastic ones. After some time, artificial plants lose their attractive appearance. Artificial plants have another, most important drawback — they do not consume nitrates. Therefore, when using them in your aquarium, you must always pay very close attention to filtration, timely water changes, and oxygen saturation.
From all of the above, it follows that plastic models have every right to exist, and in some cases, their use is even advisable. Artificial plants are an excellent choice for beginners and for those whose fish love to nibble and uproot plants. If the aquarium is just an interior item for you, and your dream is to reduce its maintenance to a minimum, then a plant model will probably turn out to be the most rational solution to the problem of landscaping the body of water.
Therefore, artificial plants are a good option for you if you have little time to care for the aquarium, because live plants grow, they need to be constantly trimmed, thinned, and fertilized. In general, control and care are necessary, otherwise, the aquarium will either get overgrown or, in the case of fastidious plants, the plants will die and the leaves will spoil.
An aquarium with live plants enters the phase of biological equilibrium faster, and its ecological system is more stable. The main advantage of natural plants is that they consume nitrates from water and soil. They also release oxygen and consume carbon dioxide. Of course, they cannot split water molecules — H2O, they can only use substances from the air dissolved in water for respiration.
But the amount of these substances can vary. Fish require more oxygen and release more carbon dioxide than plants. This disproportions in respiration processes is compensated by plant assimilation: under the influence of light energy, plants convert inorganic substances from the soil and water into organic substances (protein, starch, sugar).
This is how plants differ from animals. During assimilation, a plant requires more carbon dioxide than it exhales, and at the same time, more free oxygen turns out to be available than it needs for respiration. And since a fish exhales more carbon dioxide than a plant, this “excess” carbon dioxide benefits the plant’s assimilation process. The excess oxygen benefits the fish. Thus, plants and fish complement each other.
Many beginner aquarists believe that living flora is the main supplier of oxygen for hydrobionts. In reality, plants provide the aquarium population with oxygen by no more than 10-15% of the demand. The main part enters the water due to natural gas diffusion across the water-air boundary, that is, thanks to the elementary water mixing created by the most primitive filter.
A sufficient number of plants will help maintain an optimal balance in the aquarium. In addition, fish feel much better among live plants rather than in an artificial “jungle”. And watching your aquarium gradually become greener is an activity no less pleasant than looking at fish. In a properly organized aquarium, live plants can exist for years, actively developing new leaves and multiplying (mainly vegetatively), and under very favorable conditions, even bloom.
But this is in a proper one, and if not, if there is still a lack of knowledge and experience? Then everything is less predictable. In unsatisfactory conditions, plants will die, destroying the picture you created; and in good ones, they will grow luxuriantly, also introducing anarchy and chaos into the underwater landscapes; and then constant control will be required: buying new plants or, conversely, thinning out their thickets. Some plants are very tolerant of the owner’s mistakes. They forgive certain violations of the lighting regime, sharp changes in water characteristics (temperature, pH, hardness). Others are very categorical: the slightest mistake on your part, and instead of an attractive bush, only a skeleton of veins remains in the aquarium, or even nothing at all.
Certain fish (barbs, large charinids, cichlids), and even snails are often not averse to feasting on tender greens, sometimes reducing even a very lush and beautiful bush to the status of an unattractive stump. In addition, some species of fish like to dig in the substrate, uprooting plants and damaging their root system or pulling out bushes, thereby reducing all your efforts to bring the aquarium into a proper look to zero.
By the way, fish are probably the most important factor influencing the choice. First of all, you need to decide which fish will swim in your aquarium. If livebearing or small characins, then undoubtedly it is better to choose natural plants. Many fish need bushes with thin feathery or broad leaves as a substrate for caviar or as shelter. Anabantids like to lay their saliva-cemented nests on floating plants. And for angelfish, which willingly tear broad leaves, Vallisneria, Sagittaria, or Echinodorus are very suitable. Schooling fish require a shady location in the back of a densely planted tank.
Sometimes there is an acute need for artificial plants. If your heart is set on Distichodus, Leporinus, large cichlids that dig up the substrate and eat everything green, then it is better to choose artificial plants. Plastic is definitely inedible, while live plants can become a pleasant treat for your pets, and nibbled leaves are unlikely to add attractiveness to the aquarium. Although Anubias on driftwood or rocks would be a good option here; they will grow without problems, and thanks to the rigid structure of the leaves and stem, no one can damage them.
Plants’ attitude to light intensity.
Adaptability of aquatic and marsh plants. 
