No safe dip for anacharis?

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7Enigma

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Dec 29, 2005
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So I purchased my first plant from our local PetSmart and didn't want to bring any bad things into the tank (be it fish diseases or other forms of algae). So I did my typical 30 second peroxide dip (I drained the water in the bag, put about a cup of water in the bag with the plant and a shot of peroxide and mixed for 30 seconds). I then immediately washed it off in tap water and threw it in my QT tank (10 gallon).

It didn't look 100% when I bought it, but seemed healthy enough. Today (2 days later) it looks like its melting, has some hair or some other string-like algae on it, and I have no idea if it will make it.

This tank has been dosed with Excel occasionally but NOT for over a week. I've heard Excel quickly becomes unusable to the plants and would assume this would make it ineffective for killing the anacharis (since crypts, and anacharis both melt when in the presence of Excel).

So my question is, did the short peroxide dip kill the plant? and if so is there any safe dip that would be harsh enough to kill algae (not looking to kill snails/etc since I have snails in my tank already by choice).

Thanks, and I'll get a pic up later if I can.
 
My guess is that since the plants were already in poor condition, it made them more suseptible to being further damaged by the dip.
 
Purrbox, that's very likely. I just wasn't willing to risk introducing a new form of algae or disease to my QT tank over a $3 plant. If this was from my LFS I purchase all of my fish from I probably wouldn't have dipped them, but I won't chance a big box store that takes poor care of their fish/plants.

So last night after hoping there would be some miraculous come back I realized it was a lost cause (the tank is now polluted with anacharis debris), I yanked out the plant. $3 down the drain. Oh, I did get the "lead" weight thing from the anacharis bundle so I can now weight down small clippings if I need to (I'm sure that's worth at LEAST $3). One possible saving grace is a tiny (pea size) piece of anacharis that for some reason doesn't seem to have begun to rot. It could just need another day, but it looks like a bud of a new plant so maybe it will grow back.

Anyway I took my daughter to PetSmart again (she could live there I swear), and decided to get some ghost shrimp just for kicks. I put them in my QT tank (where the anacharis was) since this has no predators, lots of detrius, and as long as my cats don't knock over the tank going after them (tough since they are see-through) they should have a good home. I haven't put a sponge over the intake of the filter as I wanted to suck up any anacharis particles that would get kicked up, but I may have to if I see a shrimp get too close to the intake (there's a hole in the intake which would allow a shrimp to get sucked right up if it got close).

I got 5 ghost shrimp and 1 of them is clearly a well-developed female (1" or so) carrying eggs (green). I've read most people cannot seem to get them to successfully rear fry, but we'll see. Most of what I've read said older-seasoned tanks with lots of plant buildup have the best success (I assume because the small fry cannot feed on normal-sized food).

I did a very quick acclimation period with them because I thought they were going to die once put in the tank. They saw the christmas moss and bundle of java fern and started trying to run through the bag. After watching this for about 5 minutes I was worried they would cause more damage then the acclimation. So about every 3 minutes for 10-15 minutes I put in a shot of tank water, then dumped 90% of the water out and put the shrimp in. They immediately started running a loop around the tank in almost a line. Then some started to walk up the sides of the tank (there's some algae on the glass) and I even saw one picking at some common pond snail eggs. And here I was going to put some in my snail breeder tank to keep the uneaten food to a minimum! That's not such a good idea apparently.

They are certainly very interesting to watch!

They also were selling Amano shrimp but 1. I'm not paying close to $4 a piece for a shrimp and 2. I am not trained enough to actually be sure they aren't selling me something else. The lady at the store asked me if I wanted the normal shrimp or the algae eating shrimp. I kind of looked at her wierd and said they both don't eat algae? :wink:
 
I've successfully bred ghost shrimp in the past without trying. The biggest variable is whether or not the particular variety is truly FW or if it needs BW-SW for the shriplets to develop. If FW they'll breed no problems and you'll see baby shrimp showing up as long as there aren't fish around to make a meal of them.
 
I too have had baby shrimp show up. I never seen them as tiny babies, but I have shrimp in my tank in adolescent sizes, which never existed before. I always see the adult female with eggs. In planted tanks, I think some will just naturally survive.
 
I can never seem to find the fw ghosts but apparently I read somewhere that they live in fw ponds and lakes around were i live.

Well anyways on the amano shrimp- They are $5 each at my lfs and the cherry shrimp are $8 each.

And I was wondering if your QT'ing the anacharis, why did you dip it? Isn't that the purpose of a QT tank, to make sure the fish/plants don't have any diseases before placing them in the main?
 
Egeria is only 2 cells thick, so those leaves, while fast growing, are fragile.

I use Excel to kill Egeria in ponds as well as Hydrilla.
Cost more, but does no harm to other plants and fish/inverts etc.

Excel cross links the CO2 uptake mechanism we think for those plants, but not other species. I'll find out in a few weeks when we do the 14C experiement. It also does the same to algae.

Try a mild lime water dip for disinfection.
Few mellow on this species.

You might try E najas also, a prettier plant in many respects and more suited for warmer waters.

Tom Barr
 
Lance M. said:
I can never seem to find the fw ghosts but apparently I read somewhere that they live in fw ponds and lakes around were i live.

Well anyways on the amano shrimp- They are $5 each at my lfs and the cherry shrimp are $8 each.

And I was wondering if your QT'ing the anacharis, why did you dip it? Isn't that the purpose of a QT tank, to make sure the fish/plants don't have any diseases before placing them in the main?

The ghosts have taken right to my tank even though its probably quite high in nitrAtes due to all th rotting matter. I did a 50% PWC today because I felt sorry for them. :oops: I'll probably do another tomorrow just for peace of mind...

That price for cherry shrimp is CRAZY! I assume you are talking about the very small cherry red shrimp that apparently multiply very easily in our tanks? If so that's a total ripoff. You should breed them yourself and charge the store $1 a piece and laugh at them.

Anyways its a QT tank but will shortly be my dwarf puffer tank I'll be taking to work to have in my cubicle. I didn't want to introduce some bad algae or worse a disease that would cause troubles down the road. So its a QT tank now, but will soon be another fish tank.

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Thanks Tom for the recommendations. It seems I might luck out as there is a pea-sized piece of anacharis that seems to be healthy looking. I don't know why this would survive while the large plants would melt but I'm just hoping it will grow.
 
Heh yea it's the little red algae eating shrimp that breed in fw. I heard from other people that they get them for maybe $4 a pop and here I am at my lfs where they are $8 each. I don't see them there anymore. They probably don't sell them anymore cause no one would buy them!

Yeah that's always the bad (... I mean good :) ) thing about setting up quarantine tanks. You end up wanting to turn them into another fish tank!
 
7Enigma said:
Lance M. said:
I can never seem to find the fw ghosts but apparently I read somewhere that they live in fw ponds and lakes around were i live.

Well anyways on the amano shrimp- They are $5 each at my lfs and the cherry shrimp are $8 each.

And I was wondering if your QT'ing the anacharis, why did you dip it? Isn't that the purpose of a QT tank, to make sure the fish/plants don't have any diseases before placing them in the main?

The ghosts have taken right to my tank even though its probably quite high in nitrAtes due to all th rotting matter. I did a 50% PWC today because I felt sorry for them. :oops: I'll probably do another tomorrow just for peace of mind...

That price for cherry shrimp is CRAZY! I assume you are talking about the very small cherry red shrimp that apparently multiply very easily in our tanks? If so that's a total ripoff. You should breed them yourself and charge the store $1 a piece and laugh at them.

Anyways its a QT tank but will shortly be my dwarf puffer tank I'll be taking to work to have in my cubicle. I didn't want to introduce some bad algae or worse a disease that would cause troubles down the road. So its a QT tank now, but will soon be another fish tank.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks Tom for the recommendations. It seems I might luck out as there is a pea-sized piece of anacharis that seems to be healthy looking. I don't know why this would survive while the large plants would melt but I'm just hoping it will grow.

Like I said, if you want more I have lots I can trim for you :)
 
I'll keep your offer in mind. I like the challenge of trying to grow a plant from a droplet-sized piece. Hey at least this way I know its all new growth without disease! :)
 
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