Cannot bring myself to get a floaty...
 

I know that a LOT of fish like the floating plants but I just cannot seem to get myself to get one... because I think they get in the way. I had duckweed fro a while - disaster. I'm told that my hygrophilia will be a floatee also - but i like it planted. Is there a plant that floats that has large leaves and can be easily moved around but will also provide good cover? And maybe flowers as well?

i dont know much about floating plants but a member named lupin does try sending a pm

Thanks Lupin! That think looks fantastic! But I'm confused... You say to put the plant in a pot with gravel... at the bottom of the tank? Submerged? If so... what part of it floats?

Sorry - bit of a neophyte to this plant...

It sends floating leaves. The Nuphar, Nymphaea and Nymphoides genera of plants will all produce floating leaves, depending in some cases upon light intensity and/or substrate enrichment. The latter genus is the banana plant, so called.

For true floaters, there is Ceratopteris (water sprite) and Amazon frogbit (Limnobium laevigatum). I have both, the latter flowers, quite lovely little flowers actually, most aquarium plants don't have much in the way of flowers but when my Frogbit bloomed I was quite surprised.

Duckweed can be a mess. Salvinia is a similar but nicer (in my opinion) plant, but also small and thus likely to be more like duckweed. The other two I mentioned have larger leaves. Ceratopteris will spread right across the aquarium surface quickly, it is a good plant for water filtration because of its fast growth. And very useful with its dangling roots that hide fry, support bubblenests, serve as feeding grounds for many fish, etc.

Byron.

pennywort can float and has big leaves.