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It seems that most of the plants that are colorful are really not true aquarium plants. At least that is my results on searching so far. Are there any suggestions for colorful true aquarium plants? My wife likes the idea of live plants in our tank and I like the benefits of plants so we are looking for something more colorful than just "green". Any help or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.

There are some varigated forms of anubias that are rare and expensive, but pretty and easy to care for. There are also a bunch of plants that will turn red or pink under lots of light. Hygrophilia Polysperma "Sunset" is a popular one that is easy to grow. Alternanthera reineckii has leaves that are bright pink on the undersides that is quite attractive and easy to grow. Rotala Indica will turn pink at the tops under high lights, as will species of Myriophilium. Many of the rooted plants also come in reddish or marbled colors, like Ozelot swords, red rubin swords, and varieties of crypts such as c. wendtii which comes in a red and a bronze color.

Another thing you may want to consider is aquascaping with textures rather than colors. Mix broad leaves with fine leaves and mosses and you get a shaded effect that can be very attractive.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Hop on over to Tropica. If you look on the right hand side of the page, there's a drop down menu under the heading "species list". The default is "all plants" but there's a selection under there labelled "plants with color." Some of these are rare, but some are common, too.

Problem with plants that are colorful is that *generally* they need high light to keep the color, especially reds. This requires a sometimes pricey lighting setup to keep those lovely rich colors. *shrugs*

Last edited by Kitten at 06-Oct-2005 14:27

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Theres alot of Colorful aquatic plants out there, some are not so demanding and others require more attention.
Some colorful aquatic plants: Ammania Gracillis, Most Luwigia species; Luwigia Glandulosa is dark red almost purple color, Tiger Lotus(find bulb at walmart)...all these plants I mention are quite easy to keep. You can find them in most online shop and aquabid.