Small plants

[guppy]

Looking for an easy plant grow 4" to 8 at most. Easy to take care of and it can be buried in substrate

[Odd Duck]

Cryptocoryne lucens or C. lutea would both be very good options.  For really tiny and adorable, you could do C. parva but it’s crazy slow growing so buy 3 -5 times what you want or you’ll be tearing your hair out waiting for it to cover the area you want covered.  Pink Panther is another variety that often stays fairly small (seems somewhat dependent on conditions and where you source it) but it isn’t as easy to grow and even more difficult to keep it growing pink.

There are a few Java fern varieties that stay smaller:  Windelov doesn’t usually get huge, needle leaf doesn’t get big, Thor’s hammer, trident, and fishtail would all stay small enough to fit in the under 8” (there are others, too).

Anubias nana ‘Petite’ stays quite small and is usually a fairly easy grower.  All Anubias can be a bit prone to algae, but that’s true of most all slow growing plants.  There are several other Anubias that stay small, some tiny, but the price usually goes up fast the smaller they are.

There are also a few swords that stay surprisingly small, like Echinodorus hadi ‘Red Pearl’, E. vesuvius (can get bigger but usually doesn’t), E. harbich, E. parviflorus, E. bleheri ‘Compacta’, and ‘Aflame’ which can supposedly get bigger but I have trouble just keeping it alive for some reason.  I suspect I tend to underfertilize my swords in general.  Swords will need more light than Java ferns and Anubias, about the same to a little more than most Crypts.  Oh, and there’s always the micro swords like Helanthium tenellus or Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (there are others, too).

This is probably more than you wanted to sort through, but do some reading and see what you think.  Depending on what you like the looks of, how much light you do have, etc, then make choices from there.

Oops, forgot you said can be buried.  Scratch all the Anubias and Java ferns from the list.

[JoeQ]

Red mellon sword all day, grows slow(er) and more compact IMO, plus it gives you a nice easy splash of red.

Edited March 4, 2023 by JoeQ
Wrong plant recommendation, changed flame sword to mellon sword