As oscar owners know plastic plants can sometimes be problematic with oscars (though not as much as live plants are .

Recently I've discovered a line of plastic plants, realistic representations of real plant species, which have as accessories plastic wood or rocks for the plants to attach to.
www.aquariumguys.com/tetra-fake-plants.html

I also recently cannibalized an old plant originally in my turtle tank which had metal wire on the top I removed. I stuck the branches into the water intake grid of one of my HOB filters, see?

and since water will perpetually be running over the plant it should provide even more surface area for biological filtration.

yes, in recent years fake plants have become incredibly realistic. I have got quite a lot here that I have never used, lots of Amazon swords. To be quite honest I don't bother with any type of plants, fake or real. Real plants get destroyed as we all know, fake plants collect the algea so has got to be cleaned on a regular basis, I just can't be bothered. Also, I found that with my fake plants, the individual leaves came away and blocked my pipework in my sump, so that's one good reason why I don't bother any more.

I have recently gone to using silk plants from the floral department of my local WalMart. They don't come apart so the Oscars CANT tear them up.. They do look very realistic!

Nicki--Sue wrote:


Are you sure they are water safe? I was even worried about the plastic plant originally meant for a reptile terrarium so that I cut out the metal piece because I didn't know what kind of metal it was. Some plastics leech chemicals into the water.

The ones advertized specifically for aquarium use which also look realistic are so [explative] expensive!

Oh & btw I'm sorry I didn't see til just now there's a thread for discussing plants "even plastic ones"

Nicki--Sue wrote:


Don't tell me you have got a bunch of roses in your aquarium?

no roses and yes they are safe... several members have been using them for a very long time... they are all plastic and silk... you can buy silk plants from Petsmart and Petco, these are just the same but FAR BIGGER so the Oscars can actually hide!

jimw/oscar wrote:

The ones from the floral department are safe for use in aquariums as long as they're not dyed. Metal is allways a bad idea in your tank.
And you can save some bucks indeed!

Nicki--Sue wrote:



Cool, maybe I'll do a rose theme minus the thorns

hi i just brought some fake plants that are for a vivarium i think these are really good as they have suckers attached so you can fix the to the inside of your tank,and cant float away not a bad price either,

kazzy wrote:


I use these to cover my filter inlet and heater

DO NOT WASTE your time with tetra water wonders plants. I ordered 35 pieces from Amazon, and while they look great, the anchor SUCKS!! It will not stay grounded. The oscars pulled every last one up. The ones that have a heavy rock like anchor are the best.

These are a long piece of plastic curled up into a thin V shape. You put the gravel in there and it will stay in place, but not if a fish keeps swimming into them, bumping them, or just ramming them. Almost all of them are floating, and so now I just pull em out and have them sitting on the top of the tank.

So while I bought several for around $0.89 a piece, i wasted my money, I will have to glue these down to get em to stay.