Plant Problems

[Magma4life]

So I got an Anubius Congensis plant for my tank (They didn't have the nana I'd hoped to get) and since I didn't have a qt tank, put it in the small fishbowl I use to store my fish supplies in. There isn't a filter or heater or anything in it, I'm just free-floating it. My questions are: (1) Do I add some fish flakes or something to build up BB.(I don't have fertilizer or C02 because I read they don't need it.) (2) How often do I change the water? (3) How long should the plant be quarantined?Thanks in advance!

 

[libertybelle]

Depends on what you’re trying to avoid.

Personally I usually just rinse well in tap water then put new plants in Tupperware for a few days to watch for signs of snails. Admittedly I’ve gotten lucky, it’s not a real quarantine. But I’ve avoided snails despite buying plants repeatedly from infested tanks.

If you wanted to you could do a h202 or bleach dip. Anubius usually handles those well in my experience.

It will be fine without a heater or filter, just change the water occasionally so it doesn’t get stagnant. And keep it out of the sun, anubius grows so slow that will just encourage algae. Shouldn’t need any ferts during quarantine, you could put it in tank water so there’s a bit of nutrients in there

 

[Magma4life]

Thanks so much for the advice. Will do that.

 

[libertybelle]

Lol, just noticed my first Ramshorn snail in the tank. First time in years!

I just wanted to emphasize that this is the ‘probably want to avoid snails but I won’t be that upset if I do get them’ version of ‘quarantine’. I personally couldn’t decide if I wanted them or not so I did the lax version of quarantine and figured i’d see what happens. Worked for years but eventually you’re bound to miss one!

If you really are wanting to avoid introducing snails you should do a dip of some kind. And as I mentioned anubius tend to be very resilient to dips if you want to go that route.

 

[Magma4life]

Ok, thanks. Don't see any snails, so I'll probably stick it in my tank in a few days. Thanks for your help!