plant sampling and bulb health

I have three questions for you.

I am getting ready to start cycling my 55 gallon (need a few questions answered on filter set up from the guy who sold me it and i will start) and have started adding plants to it. Store bought plants so far. However I have a few questions on plants, both native and non. Can you help me with them?

1. What is the best way to safely sample native plants? I assume using a garden spade to dig them from the substrate (i also assume that by being in water their root systems will not be very wide or deep). I heard stories of native plants having harmful creatures as hitchhikers on them.

2. a few of the store bought plants have shriveling leaves, should i remove them now or see if they recover. (made the mistake of being lazy about putting on the tanks light, i think that is the problem, i added plant food though).

3. I tried adding aquatic plant bulbs, they have not grown and i will have to remove them as a "decay web" has started to form on them. I had doubts on them growing as they looked alot like the shriveled, dead, freebie bulbs you get with orders from gardening catalogs that almost never grow. But I do wonder, how long should you normally wait for bulbs to start growing before you remove them. (obviously the white "rot webs" means these ones are already no good).

*sigh* at least i am (unwillingly) starting the cycling before my filter is even added.

Edited by FirstChAoS, 05 June 2009 - 01:46 AM.

• I just give newly collected plants a good rinse and into the tank they go. If the tank already has water in it, I remove all the soil from the roots, but this is just to keep it from mucking up the water. If you are concerned, a permanganate dip would kill a lot of hitchhikers. I'm sure a concentration could be found on Google.
• Store-bought plants are usually grown emmersed (above water). They grow faster that way. Unfortunately, in many species the leaves have a different form submersed leaves. These leaves will usually die off over time and be replaced by new submersed leaves.
• Don't know much about those bulbs in the store, since they are non-native. Maybe someone else can help. They do indeed often look suspicious, as if they have been on the shelf for years.

the bulbs you purchas in most stores are very old and you may only get one of them to actually grow.....I would suggest you skip the whole bulb idea and just go with the plants....As nativeplanter has stated...most plants in the stores are grown up out of the water....You can find some stores that keep submersed but you will pay a lot more for them....I know the store I work at usually charged anywhere between 3 and 5 dollars extra for the plants that have been grown under the water.

Many native plants are what we call stem plants....simply taking a clipping of the stem and leaves stick it into an aquarium plant gravel and they will grow....the problem with this is that many natives will pull or knock them out of the gravel before they have had a chance to root themselves.....

I have also found that up here in the north many of the plants are use to having a winter period....and it can be a little difficult to get them to thrive in the aquarium.....but not impossiable......

Apparently store bought plants can have hitchhikers too, just got a few and ended up with a tiny snail in my tank. hopefully he's harmless.

I look at the hitchhikers as free fish food. You'll nearly always get snails with plants, there will be eggs on them. Some people treat their plants to kill the snail eggs, but I don't bother. A few snails are beneficial, and if you get too many snails in your tank, you are feeding too much.