But I'll add a real life tip out there for real live fish keepers:
If you want to buy a live plant for your tank and confused on what to get, definitely go for JAVA FERN. It's a little bit pricier to buy at first, but it lasts FOREVER and is EASIER to care for than most other plants offered at the store like Anachris, Hornwort, Moneywort, Cabomba, Corkscrew, Wisteria, any grasses or spiral grass, potted plants. The best part is it re-grows little baby plants off of its mother leaf (you'll see tiny spores that look like dirt spots at first) so you'll really only have to buy one or two to get you going to decorate a bunch of tanks.
I love this stuff; I still have the very first plant I bought back in 2009, and it had grown babies that then went on to grow its own babies and so on and so forth, enough to furnish five large tanks and then some. I was throwing extra away or giving it to friends!
Amazon sword is another good one, but you need a big and tall tank for that one to really thrive, because once the tallest leaf hits outside the top of your tank, you've got a dead leaf that well suck energy from the rest of the plant unless you clip it asap. Ozelot sword is a good one for a smaller tank, if you like the sword family. Also other hardy ones are in the Anubias family, Crypts.
! That's the one thing about keeping any live plant, though, is the care. A lot of the plants I mentioned before don't hold up unless there in pristine conditions, in really bright light, enough space, no fish eating it all time, or well conditioned water, so that's why I picked Java fern as the best plant overall. Even if you keep it it the dark, it would find a way to "swim" or adapt to little sunlight and STILL grow babies. There is minimal clipping involved; more of a set it and forget it kind of plant. Many fish are known not to like the taste of Java Fern, so they won't gobble it up before it can have a chance to grow, like with gold fish (& btw, if you have gold fish, PLEASE feed them a supplement of veggies! If you don't know what I'm talking about, ask me and Ill explain in another post).
One thing you MUST do, first thing when you bring the plant home, is to separate it into several plants. What the store gives you makes you think its one plant, but it's actually a bunch of them sewn together with black thread. So, clip the thread and carefully take each plant so apart- you can tell by each rhizome, each with it's tangled set of roots. If you leave it bunched together, it still will probably grow and live, but not very well. Also, you don't have to plant it into rocks or substrate, just let out float! I do with mine and it gets better access to the sun that way anyway.
Dead plants can lead to dirty water, which ultimately can lead to dead fish. But easy maintenance can lead to easy long term care and healthier more vibrant fish! & live plants are much more appreciated than plastic fake ones!!
