Toxic Plants?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

FBTennisNumberOne

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 25, 2008
Messages
13
So im pretty new to this forum but i wanted to share a story with yall and see if u has any feedback..
I work at a local petstore and handle all the fish needs...i like to think of myself as a geek lol...i don't know everything but i would like too lol :)

i had a customer today who was really distaught...
earlier this morning they had gone to PETSMART and bought 3 live plants...the ones that come in a plastic tube...she wanted some forground plants...and i have no clue which ones she purchased...lol becuase she didn't even know what they were called....
she got them home...and placed them in her 30 gallon community tank...with other live plants... her tank had been running for over a year and they had hundreds of dollars invested in the tank...as anyone would with lots of live plants and fish...etc...
within 5 hours of placing the plants in the tanks....EVERY fish in the tank had died except for one angel fish who was gasping at the top sideways...
He died a couple hours later...
She has called PETSMART to complain and all they said they could do was refund the money for the 3 plants...so she has the phone number to talk to a coorperate representative and hopefully they can give her a refund somehow...or give her store credit...
I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED?
ANY SUGGESTIONS?
she brought me in a water sample from her tank...i tested it for pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and Phosphate. Her pH was 7.6 which should not have been a problem... and everything else was ZERO except for her nitrate was was barely showing anything..less than 5 ppm i beleive...which is the by product of the nitrogen cycle and only means hasn't done a water change in a week....
SO....does anyone have any ideas on what could have happened?
Im at a loss!
Thanks
Tyler
 
Well first off most of those plants aren't true aquatics. I have no way of knowing for sure what happened, but my first guess would be that the plants were treated with something to eliminate bugs. If not rinsed before being placed in the aquarium this could have caused the results described.
 
I wonder if the gel things around the roots might have caused a problem? Anyone have any input on that? I thought that stuff was supposed to be non-toxic, but I dunno.
 
Any number of things could have happened and it might not have had anything to with the new plants. Maybe she just put lotion on her hands before putting the plants in the tank. or she washed her hands and didnt rinse well enough. The biggest mistake was to put something in her tank that she didnt know what it was and didnt research it. With so much invested cant just hap-hazardly grab something and throw it in and expect no consiquences every time. Especially buying from petsmart.
 
She wasn't HUGE into the planted scene and everything and she usually just would grab and go lol....and everything seemed to have worked out ok...
its not my tank so no sweat on my behalf..but shes a regular customer and i just wanted to try and figure it out for her so next time she came in i might be able to explain some possible outcome....I am leaning toward the plants being treated for bugs...I can't see lotion causing a huge reaction like that especially in a 30 gallon....maybe a smaller tank...but i have no clue...so any guess is as good as another...

Thanks for the immediate responses....
Tyler
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Antibacterial soap on hands has caused death in tanks and so have some lotions. 30 gals of water isn't all that much and contamination of any sort whether it be bug treatment or soap or lotion could very well be the cause.
 
I agree with Anne. Lotion on hands can cause a MAJOR problem, especially in a 30 gal tank.

I doubt it is anything that Petsmart did wrong. She must have not cleaned the plants properly before introducing them into her tank or she didn't clean her hands properly.
 
NEW UPDATE...
My girl came back in and she said she had dealt with a Representative or w/e from the company and the gave her a $100 gift card...for her troubles...
Doesn't add up to half of what she put into the tank...but it sure helps...
even though she isn't too kean on shopping there anymore...
she said she was going to spend it on dog food...lol and come and get her fish from me...
Actually pretty impressed with the way the company handled it...i half expected them to say too bad...
Tyler
 
Back
Top Bottom