Water Plants for an aquarium?

My dad has a 55 gallon aquarium that he really wants to get some plants established in. I brought in rootballs of arrowroot, grass, watercress, and water lily (a very small variety) from our stream out back, with mixed success. The arrowroot has not come back at all (we cut back all the foliage on all the plants to prevent the decay from contaminating the water too much), and the lilypad has only throw off miniature leaves, which then die back after only a couple of inches. The watercress is doing surprisingly well, given that it is entirely submerged, and the grass is starting to come back.

We are interested in finding a source for small water plants. We don't heat the aquarium, so it stays around 70-65 in the winter. We have seven little zebra-stripe fishes and one goldfish and three freshwater mussels in the tank right now.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Cedar

I suspect that many of the outside plants you've brought in won't do too well in an aquarium. The grass and arrowhead can be partially submerged but probably not more than a couple of inches or so. But all of these plants depend on strong amounts of sunlight - specially the water lilies and the light intensity is probably inadequate. At least that'd be my best guess.

That is what I was thinking, too. Dad has a flourescent hood light that is on probably 18 hours a day, but I know the arrowroot is too deep. We found an online source and are going to get some plants that way, I think.

Whatever happened with the tank? We're wanting to start having live plants in our 55-g, too! :)

Well, the watercress died back a couple of weeks ago, and the arrowoot didn't make it. We tried sweet flag fom the bog out back and it actually did pretty well, but the best thing so far is a waterlily that came from Walmart. It has several leaves up and is quite healthy. I am way too pregnant to get out to the creek, and Dad hasn't had time, so we haven't tried anything else yet.

Cedar