lyndatu

Hello

I bought home some Anacharis plant from the store and put it in my 20-gallon tank with fish. After a day I noticed my guppy and platy seem to be pale. After a few days they died, but as well as the other fishes. I checked the water and the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels were fine. What do you think is the cause? Was it the plant carrying some parasites or diseases from the pet store? If so, how can I prevent it? I'm planning to get some more plants, but I'm afraid of my fish getting sick.

Thanks in advance!

Muffymouse

I'm sorry you lost all your fish, I know how that feels. Sadly, I know nothing about plants and can't help you figure out what went wrong.

ThisGuy

Did you rinse the plant and check for any snails or other parasites??

Angela_96

I agree, w/ the other post there might have been parasites or disease on the plants. when you buy live plants from fish stores they have fish in those tanks and snails (sometimes) which may be diseased.

lyndatu

Thank you everyone!

Yes, the tank that the anacharis plant I got from in the store was filled with dead and sickly fish. I hope they fix the problem soon..... I should wash the plants before putting them in the tank. Thanks for the advice! Oh and do you think putting it in the quarantine tank first would help?

Jim

wow, I'm sorry to hear what happened. As for quaranteening plants, I've wondered that for a while now. This is my planted tank, I'm sure you can see why i'm worried:



I don't care about snails, I can eliminate them easy enough. But knowing you may have brought something home on a plant that killed off your fish reenforces what I've suspected, that it may not be that crazy after-all to throw a plant into quaranteen for a few days.

ThisGuy

Hey Jim what kind of lighting do you have on that tank and co2 injection system? And is that just gravel for a substrate?

Jim

OK, in a nutshell, the substrate is a mix of Eco-Complete, Florite and Laterite, along with plain black gravel and small round river rocks. It was originally topped in black volcanic sand, but this sort of sank into the rest on its own, while the river rocks have migrated to the top... very cool looking but entirely unexpected.
Anyway, the lights are 1-130 Watt 6700K Quad-Tube high intensity plant light along with 2-65Watt 6700K T-5 Plant tubes and 2-65Watt 1000K T-5 All Spectrum tubes.
And I do have a CO2 injection system running, basically a 20lb full sized CO2 industrial tank with a CO2 Flow-Regulator running 2 different tanks at about 3 bubbles per second, straight lined into the tanks canasters for maximum bubble destruction.

angelfish220

Jim you have to be really proud of that tank, it seems like everythread I go on has a picture of that tank in it, but I never get bored looking at it.

Jim

thanks... sometimes I think I'm showing it off too much, but I'm definitly proud of how it'd doing so far.

But wait until tomorrow when I post the pics of my newest creation... hehehe

LetDiceFly

I have heard some people going as far as rinsing their plants with a diluted bleach solution, followed by rinsing with clean conditioned water before introducing them to their tanks.

Jim

I've never gone that far, and unless there's a real problem, I would avoid using bleach of any sort. I usually just visually inspect my plants, remove any dead or dying roots and leaves as well as any snail eggs. Then I just plant it.

Here's the down side to the bleach thing. Most plants, like everything else in a tank, are covered in bio-filtering bacteria. Plus there's another bacteria, I don't remember exactly it's name, that lives on the roots that helps break down minerals or some such thing... Point it, this is GOOD bacteria, I wouldn't want to remove any of it. And if you're first setting up a tank, it can make all the difference in the world cycling. I have a great example that just happened to me:
The last few weeks, sinse I blew out my back & am stuck home, I've been rebuilding my 48 gallon column tank from the botom up. And you all know that meant it needed to cycle again. And even though I used water and some gravel from my bowfront, it was definitly taking it's sweet time cycling. So last Monday the ammonia was stablizing, but the nitrites were still spiking, and i was headed down to Tampa to a LFS I had never visited before. The place is called "Marine Warehouse" and is a goldmine! This is where I found my Vampire Shrimp. Anyway, while I was there I also bought this HUGE Madascar Lace plant, took it home and planted it in the column tank as a front showcase plant. Now, if you haven't seen a Madascar Lace, it's leaves are like giant lace sieves, and I remember being super careful to keep it wet and wondering just what this plant might do, if anything, to the cycle.
Guys, I swear to God, the very next morning I tested the tank and it was cycled and stable. No ammonia, no nitrites and only a trace of nitrates. And it's held all week now as I've introduced fish. And all I can think is that lace plant was covered in bacteria and was like introducing this huge bio-filtering machine into the tank. So I would be careful rinsing off a plant, especially in tap water, unless you suspect something might be on it.