Looking for a final Answer on bamboo..

[nzpv03]

so I have been looking through pages upon pages and the answers still seem to be back and forth...can I or can I not plant fully submerged store bought "lucky bamboo" in my tank safely? I love the effect, but do not wanna harm my little friends :?

 

[joannde]

I have a motto with my tanks "when in doubt, leave it out"
I took a look through some of the online retailers of aquarium plants and none of them offer lucky bamboo (which is actually not a bamboo, but a dracenia, and as far as I know dracenia's are terrestrial).
If it were my tank I'd leave it out.
HTH

 

[rich311k]

It has to be grown emersed. It will die if submerged.

 

[nzpv03]

ohh alrighty! Darn the lfs for another bluff...but of course I don't take action til' i run it past the AA jury! THANK god! =]

 

[catfishattack]

I have a little fish bow with bamboo and guppies in there. Everything is fine and guppies look happy

 

[nzpv03]

is it FULLY submerged?

 

[joannde]

catfishattack, is it fully submerged and how long has it been in there ? I've read several times that the leaves need to be above water, so it may only be a matter of time before your bamboo starts to rot.

 

[Sicklid]

When bamboo rots, it ROTS... Will stink like the OLDEST ROTTEN POTATOES in the world have been dumped in the tank (knew a person who tried it in their Betta tank). Have fun!

 

[nzpv03]

HAAHAH sicklid... ya i passed on the bamboo and got me some anubias =]

 

[7Enigma]

The problem with lucky bamboo is that it has peculiar needs. It is an extremely slow growing plant (lily family, not a bamboo as mentioned above already), as because of this requires VERY low nutrient levels at VERY long intervals between additional nutrients. A lot of people kill their plants by adding a common growth additive and wondering why the leaves yellow and die. But most kill it with too much light. Lucky bamboo is an indoor plant or at most an indirect sunlight plant and if you have any sort of upgraded tank lighting you will surely kill it.

I've recently been growing a bunch of small lucky bamboo plants at work in my cubicle. After reading many different care sites I am currently using distilled RO water (from my lab) and once every week or two putting a small amount (under an ounce) of tank water that I bring in from home. If I ever see the leaves start to wilt or change color away from the dark green, I remove all the water with a syringe (so the pebbles don't get disturbed and damage the roots) and replace with the distilled RO water.

The plants have never looked happier.

I even sprouted a new stalk by cutting slightly below a node (notchy things along the stalk) and placing in distilled water for 3-4 weeks. Sure enough the plant shot out long white roots after about a week or so and then I added my normal nutrient mix. Apparently the distilled water fools the plant into thinking there are little/no nutrients present and it will quickly root.

Now that you have all this pointless information (since I recommend against using it in a tank and you've already posted you don't plan on using it), I'll move along.