Aquarium Plant Care Chart (India): Light, CO2 & Difficulty

Quick answer: Most of the plants sold in India are low-light, no-CO2 species: Anubias, Bucephalandra, Java fern and mosses attach to wood or rock and need nothing but six to eight hours of modest light. Only carpets and red stem plants really need strong light and CO2. The chart below gives the light, CO2, growth rate, placement and price for all 55 plants we stock, and you can filter it.

Plant	Difficulty	Light	CO2	Growth	Placement	Key note	Price
Amazon Frogbit Limnobium laevigatum	Easy	Moderate	Not needed	Fast	Floating	Trailing roots shelter shrimp and fry	₹1
Amazon Sword Echinodorus bleheri	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Moderate	Background	Root in nutrient-rich substrate; old leaves may melt	₹2
Anubias ‘Coffeefolia’ Anubias barteri var. ‘Coffeefolia’	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	New leaves emerge coffee-brown, mature glossy green	₹3
Anubias ‘Dragon Claw’	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹1–₹3
Anubias Barteri var glabra Anubias barteri var. glabra	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹1–₹3
Anubias Butterfly	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Variegated; grows slower than plain green Anubias	₹3
Anubias Chili	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹3
Anubias Congensis Anubias congensis	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Larger Anubias for midground or background	₹2
Anubias Marble	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Variegated; grows slower than plain green Anubias	₹14
Anubias Nana	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹1–₹3
Anubias Nana Gold	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹1–₹3
Anubias Nana Petite	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Tiny leaves for nano tanks; never bury rhizome	₹1–₹3
Anubias Nana Petite Clump	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Dense clump for instant foreground cover	₹19
Anubias Nana White	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Variegated; grows slower than plain green Nana	₹3
Anubias Panda	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Variegated; grows slower than plain green Anubias	₹13
Anubias Pinto	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Variegated; grows slower than plain green Anubias	₹3
Anubias Snow White	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Variegated; grows slower than plain green Anubias	₹4
Anubias Stardust	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Variegated; grows slower than plain green Anubias	₹11
Anubias Var king	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Large-leaved centrepiece; never bury the rhizome	₹17
Bacopa Caroliniana Bacopa caroliniana	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Fast	Midground	Leaves smell faintly of lemon when crushed	₹1
Brazilian Pennywort Hydrocotyle leucocephala	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Fast	Background	Grows planted, floating or emersed	₹1
Bucephalandra ‘Brownie Ghost’ Bucephalandra sp.	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Some melt after planting is normal; never bury rhizome	₹4
Bucephalandra ‘Catherinae’ Bucephalandra sp.	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Some melt after planting is normal; never bury rhizome	₹4
Bucephalandra ‘Godzilla’ Bucephalandra sp.	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Some melt after planting is normal; never bury rhizome	₹5
Bucephalandra ‘Kedagang’ Bucephalandra sp.	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Some melt after planting is normal; never bury rhizome	₹4
Bucephalandra ‘Skeleton King’ Bucephalandra sp.	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Some melt after planting is normal; never bury rhizome	₹6
Bucephalandra ‘Wavy Green’ Bucephalandra sp.	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Some melt after planting is normal; never bury rhizome	₹3
Cabomba Caroliniana Cabomba caroliniana	Moderate	Moderate to high	Recommended	Fast	Background	Sheds its lower leaves in low light	₹1
Christmas Moss Vesicularia montagnei	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury it in substrate	₹2
Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Green’ Cryptocoryne wendtii	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Midground	Melts after a move, regrows within weeks	₹2
Cryptocoryne Wendtii ‘Red’ (Bronze) Cryptocoryne wendtii	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Midground	Melts after a move, regrows within weeks	₹2
Duckweed Lemna minor	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Fast	Floating	Multiplies very fast and is hard to remove	₹1
Dwarf Hairgrass Eleocharis sp.	Moderate	Moderate to high	Recommended	Moderate	Foreground	In low light it grows tall, thin and sparse	₹2
Dwarf Java Fern Microsorum pteropus ‘Green Gnome’	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Stays small; never bury the rhizome	₹2
Dwarf Sagittaria Sagittaria subulata	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Moderate	Foreground	An easier carpet than dwarf hairgrass	₹1
Egeria Densa (Anacharis) Egeria densa	Easy	Moderate to high	Not needed	Fast	Background	Good for cooler, unheated tanks; trim regularly	₹1
Flame Moss Taxiphyllum sp. ‘Flame’	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Grows upright in flame-like tufts, not flat	₹2
Hydrocotyle Tripartita ‘Japan’ Hydrocotyle tripartita	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Fast	Foreground	Also climbs hardscape or trails downward	₹2
Hygrophila Pinnatifida Hygrophila pinnatifida	Moderate	Moderate to high	Optional	Moderate	Midground	Plant it or tie the rhizome to hardscape	₹2
Java Fern Philippine Microsorum pteropus	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹2
Java Ferns Microsorum pteropus	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹2
Java Moss Taxiphyllum barbieri	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Moderate	Attach to wood or rock	Trim every two to four weeks to keep tidy	₹1
Ludwigia Repens Ludwigia repens	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Fast	Background	Deepens to ruby-red with stronger light and iron	₹1
Ludwigia Sedioides (Water Mosaic) Ludwigia sedioides	Easy	High	Not needed	Moderate	Floating	Needs bright light; grows best outdoors March to October	₹1
Micranthemum ‘Monte Carlo’ Micranthemum sp. ‘Monte Carlo’	Moderate	Moderate to high	Recommended	Moderate	Foreground	Carpets slowly and can melt without CO2	₹2
Myriophyllum Tuberculatum (Red Myrio) Myriophyllum tuberculatum	Moderate	High	Recommended	Fast	Background	Advanced plant; needs strong light for red colour	₹1
Red Tiger Lotus / Red Water Lily Nymphaea rubra	Easy	Moderate to high	Not needed	Fast	Midground	Grows from a bulb; pads float at surface	₹3
Rotala Rotundifolia Rotala rotundifolia	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Fast	Background	Tips blush pink to orange under bright light	₹1
Rotala Wallichii Rotala wallichii	Hard	High	Recommended	Fast	Background	Pressurised CO2 and strong light effectively required	₹1
Staurogyne Repens Staurogyne repens	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Moderate	Foreground	Use root tabs; spreads sideways across the foreground	₹2
Vallisneria Nana (Jungle Val) Vallisneria nana	Easy	Moderate to high	Not needed	Fast	Background	Spreads by runners; nearly impossible to kill	₹1
Water Hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes	Easy	High	Not needed	Fast	Floating	Best outdoors in tubs or ponds; not frost-tolerant	₹1
Water Lettuce Pistia stratiotes	Easy	Moderate	Not needed	Fast	Floating	Provides shade and natural filtration at the surface	₹1
Water Wisteria Hygrophila difformis	Easy	Moderate to high	Optional	Fast	Background	Can be planted in substrate or left floating	₹1
Wrinkled Leaf Java Fern Microsorum pteropus ‘WrinkledLeaf’	Easy	Low to moderate	Not needed	Slow	Attach to wood or rock	Never bury the rhizome	₹2

Showing all 55 plants. Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column. Prices checked on the store on 17 September 2026.

How to read the chart

Difficulty assumes an ordinary Indian tank: hard tap water, no chiller, and a light run on a timer. Easy means the plant survives beginner mistakes. Moderate means it needs either good light or CO2 to look the way it does in photos. Hard means it will not hold its shape or colour without both.

Light is about intensity, not hours. Whatever plant you choose, six to eight hours a day is the safe photoperiod in India; longer lighting feeds algae long before it feeds the plant.

Placement matters more than people expect. Plants marked “attach to wood or rock” must never have their rhizome buried, because a buried rhizome rots. Plants marked foreground, midground or background go into the substrate, and the root feeders among them do much better with a root tab.

The easiest eleven, if you want to skip the chart

Anubias Nana, Anubias Nana Petite, Anubias Barteri var glabra, Java Ferns, Java Moss, Christmas Moss, Bucephalandra ‘Kedagang’, Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Green’, Vallisneria Nana (Jungle Val), Water Wisteria, Amazon Frogbit. Every one of them is Easy, needs no CO2, and will grow under a basic light. Mixing four or five of them gives a tank that looks planted within a month.

Where people go wrong with this chart

Buying carpets first. Monte Carlo and dwarf hairgrass are the two plants beginners ask for most and the two most likely to fail without CO2 and strong light. Dwarf sagittaria or Hydrocotyle tripartita give a low green foreground with far less effort.
Buying red plants for a low-light tank. Red Myrio and Rotala wallichii need high light and CO2 to stay red. In a low-tech tank they turn green, stretch and eventually shed.
Burying rhizomes. Anubias, Bucephalandra and Java fern all rot if the horizontal stem is pushed into the substrate. Tie or glue them to hardscape instead.
Running the light longer to “help”. Extra hours grow algae, not leaves. Fix light intensity and fertiliser first.
Judging a plant in week one. Melt is normal after shipping. The plant that looks worst on day three is often the strongest by week six.

Frequently asked questions

What do “low light” and “moderate light” mean in practice?

Low light is roughly a basic LED lid on a standard tank, or a planted light run at low output, for six to eight hours a day. Moderate is a proper planted-tank LED at normal output over a tank up to about 45 cm deep. Anything stronger, or any light run longer than eight hours, mostly grows algae on slow plants.

Which plants on this chart are the easiest to start with?

Anubias, Bucephalandra, Java fern and Java moss. All four attach to wood or rock instead of needing substrate, none of them need CO2, and they survive the light, heat and water-change habits of a beginner tank. Cryptocoryne wendtii is the easiest planted-in-substrate option.

Do I need CO2 for any of these plants?

Only Rotala wallichii effectively requires pressurised CO2. Monte Carlo, dwarf hairgrass, Cabomba and Red Myrio are far easier with it. Everything else on the chart grows without CO2, just more slowly.

Why do some plants melt after I add them?

Most nursery plants are grown emersed, out of water, so the old leaves dissolve while the plant adapts to being submerged. Cryptocoryne and Bucephalandra are the classic melters. Remove the mushy leaves, leave the rhizome or crown alone, and new submerged leaves follow within two to four weeks.

How many plants do I need for my tank?

Plan roughly four to seven plants per foot of tank length for a full look, and more of the fast growers if you want to out-compete algae from day one. A 2 foot tank usually needs eight to fourteen plants; a 3 foot tank needs twelve to twenty.