A rookie learns about Petsmart plants

[AugustWest]

A few days ago I went to Petsmart to buy my first plants.I knew they sold plants that were individually packaged and guaranteed to be snail free. I bought an Aqua Fern,Peacock Fern and a Gold Ribbon. After planting them I did a little research on the net and found out that NONE of them were truly aquarium plants and the only way they would grow would be to drain the water out of the tank. I called the store mgr.and he thought I was full of it so I printed out the info for him and he saw the light.I did get a refund and the store manager said he would pass along his newfound knowledge to his district manager. Live and learn I suppose you could say.

 

[Zagz]

I find a lot of the chain stores sell non aquatic plants as aquatic. Good for you getting your money back!

 

[Sahabo]

Yeah, LFS are generally clueless. Glad they gave you a refund. Once in a blue moon I'll find an anubias or java fern in those packages at Petco and the like...but it's rare.

 

[czcz]

On a side note, the closest Petco to my apartment always has Bacopa australlis in its emersed form.
(This is the plantgeek guy. Sweet, right?)

This is an underrated, delicate looking but hardy, small round leaved plant when grown submersed. Its like a slightly bigger M. umbrosum/baby tears. And though it grows a little wild, you can make it bushy and bendy, unlike most Bacopas, which tend to be more stiffed stemmed and vertical growers.

(this site has sweet tanks: Aquadream Style di Alessandro Colletta . Never saw it before -- Google rules. That's B. australis on the right. He does a great job trimming it.)

A cool plant you should look out for. This is never in those tubes, its bunched in those rockwool planters submerged with swords and stuff by those tubes. Under lower light submersed it is still a nice looking plant, just a darker green, bigger leaved, and less malleable.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I've found Petsmart to be a mixed bag and varies by location.
My local Petsmart has those "snail-free" tubes. But at least they do include Anubuis, Wisteria, java fern, and aquatic onion. But another Petsmart across town does not have the snail-free tubes. All of their plants are in a special plant tank and they have different plants than the other Petsmart. Don't know if either one was a bad as to be trying to sell non-aquatic plants with the fish.

 

[melosu58]

I had that happen to me also. I bought some plants for a planted tank and when they started to do bad and I did some research and found out they were not even aquatic plants. This happened at Petsmart also.

 

[AugustWest]

Cz..That`s a beauty of a plant and thanks for sharing. Does anyone have an opinion regarding the mail order vendors? There is a quality Aqua shop I can deal with but it`s 30 minutes away.

 

[ByCaitlin]

If you look closely at the plant labels on those individual tubes at PetSmart they now say "fully submersible" in the lower left corner on the Anubias, Javas, etc. Other plants, like the Peacock fern, will have a sticker that says "semi aquatic." If it doesn't say either just assume it is semi aquatic. Fully submersible plants are the ones you should use in a fish tank, semi aquatic plants are intended for terrariums. Remember, PetSmart sells many things besides fish, like frogs and turtles, and the semi aquatic plants work great in those kind of tanks.

 

[Zimmanski]

If you look closely at the plant labels on those individual tubes at PetSmart they now say "fully submersible" in the lower left corner on the Anubias, Javas, etc. Other plants, like the Peacock fern, will have a sticker that says "semi aquatic." If it doesn't say either just assume it is semi aquatic. Fully submersible plants are the ones you should use in a fish tank, semi aquatic plants are intended for terrariums. Remember, PetSmart sells many things besides fish, like frogs and turtles, and the semi aquatic plants work great in those kind of tanks.

I have noticed some of their shipments have the "fully submersible" on the label, some still don't, and that "semi aquatic" sticker is great, when my store doesn't take the tube caps off haha. I always look up any plant that I'm about to buy and make sure

 

[bud29]

This is a four year old thread.

 

[Zimmanski]

This is a four year old thread.

Hahaha, that cracks me up. I didnt even notice

 

[Autumnsky]

4 years old and the same problems. Employees don't know what they sell and people assume (I have even done it too). And suppliers don't do much to educate their buyers, so many of them don't have the Latin name, so it is near impossible to find out what you need to know!!!