River Plants

kit · #1 06-08-2006, 02:29 PM

Is it possible to up-root plants from the river and clean them and install them into my tank?

Is it recommeded and any suggestions?

Kabong · #2 06-08-2006, 05:20 PM

First off since we dont know where you live. It depends if the enviroment of the river matches that of the tank. IE cold water plants into a cold water tank.
Secondly river plants make me think they would like lots of flow.
Thirdly you need true underwater plants not plants whose lower 1/2 is in water but need there top out of it.

Canadbis · #3 06-08-2006, 07:03 PM

Fourthly: lol, you dont know what is living in those plants that you remove from the wild and are taking a chance of introducing a bug/virus into your tank.
GL

Kabong · #4 06-08-2006, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadbis

Fourthly: lol, you dont know what is living in those plants that you remove from the wild and are taking a chance of introducing a bug/virus into your tank.
GL

The irony of this statment is. It's the exact same risk we take every time we introduce something to are reef.

But yeah you are right I'd go with a few weeks of QT before I added a wild plant to my main tank. Ive actually heard of one guy getting a type of leach hitch hiking in on some wild plants.

Canadbis · #5 06-08-2006, 09:04 PM

In wild freshwater plants its amazing what can hitch a ride...but yes I agree with your statement about reef stuff.
I do use rocks and roots that I find in the mountains but I always cook them real good, this wouldn't work with live plants as I would cook them dead

kit · #6 06-09-2006, 12:20 AM

Thanks for the warning.

I was looking for plants down at the Fraser River but was curious if I saw something I could incorporate at home that I would not find at a LFS or Rona's garden centre.

IPZ · #7 06-09-2006, 04:40 AM

Hey,

If you decide you get plants from the wild ..... a great way to get rid of any parasites is to soak them in a solution of Alum. One teaspoon Alum to one gal of water for about an hour usually does the trick. We often use this at the store when we get plants in from the Orient to elliminate any hitch-hikers. You can usually find Alum in the health food section of your grocery store.

One other thing, removing plants or anything for that mater is a no no without a permit, as is putting anything you removed back after keeping it in a captive environment. Be carefull where you decide to collect.

Cheers...

Scott