tinah

The title says it all! Do I need to quarantine new plants? Or is buying them from a trusted source enough?

sirdarksol

Quarantining them is a good idea. They could be carrying bacteria or viruses from fish/inverts kept in their growing tank.

Or you can do a bleach dip or a potassium permagnate dip. Either will kill off any hitchhikers (including snails) on the plants. Some plants can't handle bleach. Plantgeek.net should not only tell you how to do both types of dip, but will also let you know if a plant is known to be harmed by bleach dips.

tinah

aren't snails a good thing?
off to Plantgeek.net!

pinky93

From experience, you should quarantine the plant because there may be snails on them and when they get into your tank it's like a snail invasion. You don't want that.

Dozey

"A trusted source"?

tinah

the same place I got the other plants, I mean. You know, so they have the same plant germs and stuff? err, something?
I can't see myself every buying ANYTHING from walmart, petco, petsmart, or the local store called luv-a-pet. . . they just don't CARE. I guess I am lucky to have two stores here that would rather create a customer for life than sell me something. The only way they are affiliated is being in the same town, but they will call and see if the other has something in stock, and they both sell fishy stuff just to finance their own habits.

Dozey

You are very lucky if you have two stores in your town that care. I'm stuck with walmart, big als and petsmart. I'm ready to start stocking my tank and the thought of having to buy fish from any of these stores is stressful at best.

That aside I feel you should still quarantine your plants. Even people with the best intensions can have bad things happen.

tinah

I'm really sorry you don't have any good independent stores.

sirdarksol

Snails, in my experience, are only a bad thing if you overfeed your tank. I have pond snails in most of my aquariums, and they aren't a problem.
Most people, however, don't like them, so I advise people how to avoid them unless told that they actually want snails.
If you want snails, the best way to do so is to quarantine the plants. This will allow the snails to live (quarantining does nothing to kill them. It actually gives them time to breed). If you don't want the snails (they can be an eyesore if you overfeed your tank. They explode in numbers and size), best to do bleach/potassium permagnate dip)