mail-order plants...how to?

[jdsunflower]

I have a couple of questions concerning mail-delivered plants.
Some background, I live in Ottawa (Ontario), and have ordered some warm-water plants from AquariumPlants warehouse in Alberta. They are said to arrive in less than 2 days, and they are being delivered to my workplace (hospital--always someone to receive a shipment). I was told a few hours more in 'transit' won't hurt them as long as I keep them in a coolish place.
q: prep is unclear: I was thinking permanganate soak, but don't want to melt everything. My main worry is snails at this time, and I'm not sure that soak does anything for that (more for algae?). I'd hate to use bleach or alum...(I'd prefer snails, frankly).
q: is there a period of rest required (??? in the tank, in the dark?) before starting the lights, co2 and fertilizers etc--I'm not sure how dilapidated the plants might be and I'm trying to be realistic...right now the tank appears to be cycling nicely after several weeks. I had only 5 corys (40B tank) and yesterday added 2 baby BN and 5 black neon tetras. water parameters look fine (0 nitrites, about .25 for both ammonia and nitrates). Doing frequent 50% water changes. Currently not using my 2 fluorescent strips to avoid algae...
in case the plant type makes a difference, I've ordered various crypts, sagittaria, nana, java fern and moss, and onion plants.
Any help preparing the nursery would be appreciated!
As an aside, I have 3 new zebra danios in QT awaiting switch to main tank, but they squabble like toddlers. Something tells me they will stress the others +++ (esp BN and tetras) despite being described as peaceful. Any opinions?
JD

 

[Purrbox]

Personally I never bothered dipping plants. I just live with the hitchhiking snails.

I've shipped plants to Canada and it took nine days for them to arrive. While a little worse for the wear, they bounced back quickly. So no, a couple extra hours won't harm them in the least when only traveling 2-3 days. The main thing is to avoid having them sit out on the porch in extremely hot or cold weather. Since someone will be there receive the plants, that won't be an issue.

Plants generally take upto 2 weeks to recover from being shipped and settle in and start growing well. Luckily the only thing you need to do to acclimate them to their new home is let them come to room temperature before messing with them if they were overly chilled or warm when received. Make sure to remove any leaves that are the worse for wear and trim up the roots. Both of these will help to encourage the plants to focus on growing new leaves and roots instead of wasting energy trying to repair the damage. It also prevents the dying portions from rotting in your aquarium and affecting the water parameters.

Personally I've never liked zebra danios. They're just too hyper for my tastes. Having a larger school in a larger aquarium would definately help, but I'd go for quite a few other fish first.

 

[jdsunflower]

thanks for that. Argh on the Z Danios...
I do have an unrelated question you might know...
If someone did something stupid (ahem) and put fish (say, tetra) into water that was too different in pH for a few hours without noticing, what is the best strategy...to switch them back, or is that compounding the problem? There appears to be a bit of respiratory distress, but I don't know if they are stressed from my watching them too closely...I HATE this and am worried. I don't have any Stress Coat. The pH change is approximately 6.5 to 7.2...
thanks,

 

[Purrbox]

At this point I would turn off the light and give the fish some time. Reducing stress factors will help it to adjust more quickly.

Next time I'd go with a drip acclimation to help ensure that the acclimation goes more smoothly.