Fish Tank Air

Fish Tank Air
Do live plants in a fish tank need an air bubble thing?

I bought fish and realized they need to have a plant, but I don't want to buy a fancy tank I just want to use a glass bowl. Can the plant live in just a glass bowl?

Plants don't need the air bubble thing. It actually bothers them, driving off CO2 they need and creating too much turbulence in close quarters. If it's far away from them and running low or moderate, they might tolerate it, but it does them no benefit.

Java fern and Java moss are two kinds of plant that can live in a glass bowl without special lighting or fertilizers. Fish do not really have to have plants. Many kinds of fish come originally from areas without plants except for algae, and most people think of algae as something ugly that covers the glass. But if fish do really need any kind of plant, algae would be the plant most of them need. Many fish eat algae, or at least nibble on it, eating the invertebrates that grow in the algae.

Some kinds of fish use plants as cover, and for them it does not matter if the plant is real or plastic. Angelfish like to lay their eggs on Amazon swordplant leaves. If it's a plastic plant, the aquarium keeper can detach the egg laden leaf, hatch the eggs in another tank prepared for that and then later snap the leaf back on to the plastic plant base.

If you want to have a glass bowl, the only fish really suitable is a male Betta splendens. Other fish breath water with their gills and will die in a bowl because the water volume is way too small. Bettas are air breathers and can do very well in small cramped spaces as long as the temperature in the room is warm and you replace the water regularly with clean aged water. Bettas don't need a live plant, but would be happy with either a plastic plant or a Java fern.

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