Where to begin?! Aquarium Botanical Variety Packs

 A hand moving around texas live oak in a botanical aquarium.

The Best Botanical Variety Packs for Aquariums

A healthy ecosystem is rich in biodiversity. You can see a variety of plants, animals, and microorganisms coexisting in their environment. Biodiversity is important because it keeps ecosystems balanced and healthy! Botanical Variety Packs help us mimic natural environments to foster this biodiversity by providing our favorite things like detritus and supplemental nutrition, to name a few. You wouldn’t only see one type of leaf, seed pod, or twig in a creek bed, right? Variety packs are a great choice for beginner and experienced aquarists alike! If you’re new to botanical method aquariums, our variety packs allow you to get to know the botanicals up close, helping you learn the type of look you want in your botanical aquarium. 

Botanical Variety Packs that Benefit Aquariums

We began with botanical starter packs – before realizing that these collections of botanicals could be so much more. Today, Betta Botanicals is proud to offer a wide selection of Botanical Variety Packs for you to choose from. Why the name change? We think that regardless of your experience in the aquarium hobby a variety pack is a great addition to your aquarium. Not just for starters! Whether you are exploring a specific botanical or ecosystem or trying botanicals for the first time, we have something for you! Get to know some of our variety packs below and learn which one might be right for you!

#TanninBae Botanical Variety Pack

The #TanninBae Botanical Variety Pack is the first botanical variety pack we developed! Filled with hand-collected oak leaves and alder cones, as well as tropical Indian almond leaves, this pack is a great way to dip your toes into the world of botanical method aquariums. We label it so because these materials are relatively tame when it comes to the development of biofilms, which can be very off-putting to new botanical aquarium enthusiasts.

We named it after a viral Tiktok where we dropped live oak into the aquarium in the same way "salt bae" sprinkles salt onto food. The #TanninBae starter pack is perfect for bettas, blackwater fish, and even goldfish! These botanicals are hand-selected for their durable nature and high tannin content. Start using only a few botanicals at a time to see the changes evolve in your aquarium, and maybe you will see a new layer of your ecosystem develop.

Buy the #TanninBae Botanical Variety Pack

The TanninBae aquarium botanical variety pack with magnolia leaves, oak leaves, oak twigs, alder cones, and indian almond leaves.

Betta Botanicals Variety Pack

A tried-and-true classic; we just had to put our name on it! This is the second botanical variety pack we created and goes beyond indian almond leaves and alder cones. This variety pack is a thoughtfully-curated mix of exotic botanicals from around the globe to add to your botanical aquarium. The Betta Botanicals Variety Pack is a great intermediate pack with materials sure to hook you on botanical method aquariums! Our shrimp love these materials, too, as they grow abundant supplemental nutrition sources like biofilms, bacteria, and fungi. We call this an intermediate botanical variety pack because the biofilms these botanicals grow can be quite abundant, and the banana stems in this pack will either have you ooo-ing and ahhh-ing, or running for the hills over the aquatic hyphomycetes they grow! At Betta Botanicals, we love this pack for its ability to create the perfect tropical stream ecosystem, and the biofilms are the perfect food for plecos, otocinculus, snails, and shrimp.

Buy the Betta Botanicals Variety Pack

The Betta Botanicals Variety Pack with guava leaves, jackfruit leaves, dregea pods, lagerstroemia pods, coconut husks, banana stems, kielmeyera pods, and a jungle pod.

Everglades Botanical Variety Pack

Most tropical fish and referenced environments are found overseas, in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa, or in the southern hemisphere in South America. The Everglades Botanical Variety Pack is different - existing as an homage to a tropical North American biotope. The Florida Everglades is a unique and sensitive ecosystem, home to 16 endangered species while also providing drinking water for over 7 million people! While the park is inundated with invasive species, other species found there are found nowhere else on Earth! Many of the botanicals sent by our suppliers are found just outside the Everglades, giving you the opportunity to explore this ecosystem up close. This is a leaf litter-heavy pack, soon to include Red Mangrove leaves.

Buy the Everglades Botanical Variety Pack

The Everglades botanical variety pack with shingles live oak, casuarina cones, casuarina needles, walnut leaves, magnolia seed pods, oak twigs, and red mangrove leaves.

"Blackwater" Botanicals Variety Pack

The Blackwater Botanical Variety Pack is our latest offering, designed to tint your aquarium with rich red and brown tannins using the power of catappa bark and coconut husk. Top that off with bamboo leaves which GLOW in the dark water! The Blackwater botanicals variety pack is a great choice for aquarists looking to branch out. We put the words Blackwater in quotes because this provides the aesthetic, but not the chemical properties of true black water environments. Blackwater aquariums are similar to botanical method aquariums with their tannin-stained water, however, they aim for specific water chemistry parameters. A blackwater ecosystem is a perfect fit for a betta fish aquarium, as the tannins and low pH provide antibacterial and antifungal benefits for your fish. 

Buy the Blackwater Botanicals Variety Pack

The blackwater botanicals variety pack with coconut coir, oak twig pieces, beech tree pods, loquat leaves, catappa bark, and bamboo leaves.

The Best Botanical Variety Pack Out There?!

Botanical variety packs are great for both beginner and experienced aquarists! Each unique variety pack allows you to create and explore diverse ecosystems in your home aquarium. Betta Botanicals is proud to intentionally curate each pack for the best quality botanicals from around the globe. Our botanical variety packs are guaranteed to provide rich tannins, and are the perfect detailed additions to any aquatic ecosystem. Have you decided which pack is right for your aquarium? Explore all of our botanical variety packs at betta botanicals! If botanical variety packs aren’t for you – don’t worry! We also carry bulk aquarium botanicals for sale, including indian almond leaves, sterculia pods, macaranga leaves, and more! From concept to completed tank, Betta Botanicals is here every step of the way to help you develop the best possible botanical method and blackwater aquariums. Happy fishkeeping!

Written by Clare Mangan, @The.Grumpy.Betta with edits by #TanninBae Himself