Plants that can survive with waterlogged roots

Carnivorous plants, of course, but they're probably not what you're looking for since they'd be rather inefficient in most cases at sucking up nutrients.

Water hyacinth--very plentiful in the South, and naturally floats. Just don't introduce it outside, and trim the roots occasionally since they can get crazy.

Salvinia--similar. Believe it has less nice flowers, and instead of roots you'll just be trimming the entire plant. Pretty frequently, too--they have a doubling time of 2-10 days in ideal conditions.

I've seen Dracaena do ok in situations like this; probably any of those hardy jungle house plants would work ok, since they often come from seasonally inundated habitats.

Saggitaria could work, though you'd be making it permanently dwarfed. Make sure to get a tropical or subtropical species if you use it. Same goes for a whole host of those tall marsh plants--cattail, bullrush, Spartina, maybe even yellow iris. Make sure they're from relatively eutrophic habitats, not highly acidic, nutrient poor places like bogs.

Willow, but you'd need to bonsai it (which is basically what's going on with that sweet potato anyway). Again, you would want a tropical or subtropical species if such a thing exists.

I'll keep thinking about this. With any wetland plant you know you're ok, but with others it's hit or miss.

 

Water convolvulus, Ipomoea aquatica. Floats on water, edible, growth dependent upon available nitrogen. Staple diet around these parts.

 

Once you're going the bonsai root you could also use bald cypress. I don't know how any of these trees respond to having wet feet while bonsaied, though.

 

I have a 10gal, unfiltered with only snails in it. I bought a few plants at PetSmart and they've been growing for a few years.

 

I know that hydroponic bonsai do exist. The only problem might be fertilizers, as bonsai already require a lot of fertilizer and a hydroponic bonsai seems like it requires even more. You would either have to have a large billiard or use fertilizers that might be harmful to the fish/inverts.

 

I used to have something similar. It was a ten gallon with vallisneria, java fern and dwarf hairgrass. I had some phantom shrimp in there with a nerite. It was very nice looking. It does need a constant light source. I prefer to use compact florescent bulbs but you can use LEDs, I just have had experiences with algae using LEDs.

 

Yeah aquatic plants, they are usually at the end of an aisle close the fish section sold in a tube with high humidity, not full of water. I've seen small tubers there too of some kind of aquatic plant for sale. I don't use a filter and the water is crystal clear and no smell. Somehow freshwater limpets showed up in that tank and those especially keep the algae off the glass. I even bought a Beta about 3 years ago that was kind of weird for me to do, not into those, just an impulse thing, he died this month in that tank. Guess the snails took care of the bod because I see no trace of it.

 

Those are probably Aponogeton, water onions or water lilies. I would not recommend them for a nano tank as they get kinda big.

 

I do have Aponogeton ulvaceus and yeah it got pretty big and bloomed, it smelled bad to me. Still doing well but died back some after being spent a little which was a good thing. I think I've had it for 3 years.

 

Anubias

 

A lot of plants are like that. I grow Anubias and aquatic ferns in all my dart frog tanks. Any of the bare root plants in the plastic cups, not under water at petco and pets smart would probably fit the bill.

 

I'm more of a fish guy than a T guy. Almost all "non-stem" plants sold for aquariums can be grown emerged, and many of the stem plants can also be grown emerged in a bog setup. the list of possible plants is probably in the thousands. and many are interesting and really attractive. the list of aquarium plants that cannot be grown emerged is probably very short: guppy grass, hornwort, algae, and anacharis are the only ones I can think of.

 

Here I have sword plants, L. rugosa, mosaic plant, monte carlo, maybe some others i'm forgetting.

 

I believe most aquarium plants at the chain pet stores are already grown emersed. Hence why they tend to melt when introduced into an aquarium, alongside the usual rehoming stress and/or being Cryptocoryne.