Isolating Plants

[Sarahlydear]

Hello everyone. :)
So I have FINALLY been able to get some plants, 3 of those banana looking ones (sorry I just forgot their names and I'm to lazy to look them up. :P) a moss ball, some medium Amazon Sword and another kind I can't remember (but I honestly have no clue).
Right now they are all in an isolation tank but I'm just curious about what I should be looking for?
Honestly I was looking into getting some snails so I don't mind if they are in there.
Is there anything else I really need to be looking for?
All the plants I got look healthy and the store and tank they came from was very well up kept and clean.
Would it be safe to just put them in the tank with my betta?
Thanks for any advice. :)

PS: I want to "clone" my moss ball (take small pieces from it) is there a size I need to wait for it to reach?
Is there a process I should go through?
Thanks for any info again.

PSS: I'll post pictures of my plant isolation tank when I figure out how to load them onto my new laptop. :P

[brownmane]

I have always added plants to a tank the day I get them. I rinse/wash them with some of the tank water that I have taken out when doing water change to get rid of broken pieces and any extra grime or snails. Plants don't usually carry anything that will infect fish.

[RayneForhest]

Sarah, I was wondering if the moss balls could be cloned as well. I'm a firm believer in propagating anything and everything possible... (and if I have extra.. I share)

[Sarahlydear]

Originally Posted by RayneForhest

Sarah, I was wondering if the moss balls could be cloned as well. I'm a firm believer in propagating anything and everything possible... (and if I have extra.. I share)

Lol yep, I already have a list of "customers" (I'm giving them away for free) that are asking for them. :p I know you can I'm just curious if they should be HUGE when you do it or if you can while they're smallish...

I like my size but I want more and I'm not exactly rich. :p

Alright I think I'll put some in the tank them...

Thanks. :)

[bby1984]

I never put plants straight into my fish aquarium from a petstore. If the store that you get your plants from keeps a very clean plant only system (no fish or invertebrates) I would not worry about it as much. If there are fish or invertebrates housed in their plant tank or their plant tank shares the same filtration system then your new plants can act as a carrier of infectious water born disease capable of infecting your fish. In either case you can introduce parasites or bacteria into your nice clean aquarium that can do the same thing. What I typically do for my own tanks is fill several bowls (or the same bowl several times) with water from my tank. I usually do a water change every time before I add new plants to one of my aquariums and use this old water. I float the plants in my aquarium for about ten minutes to acclimate them to my waters temperature as not to shock them. Next, I remove the rubber bands, lead or other binding from the roots and separate my plants out into the bowl of water individually. If the plants are potted I take the extra step of repotting them myself after doing the following. Remove any clumped detritus from the roots so that I am not adding more ammonia causing debris to my tank and then gently swish the plants in the water to remove anything clinging to them. I do that several times (each time in a new bowl or clean water) with all of the plants until the water remains relatively clear afterward. The last step that I do is briefly run the plants through tap water from my faucet (the same temperature as my tanks water as not to shock them). I make this brief (10 seconds or less) since my city water contains chlorine among other things that may do harm with prolonged exposure. This helps to kill/wash off anything that may remain. Then I add them to my tank. The whole process takes me about ten to twenty minutes depending. It may seem like a lot but I love my fish and when adding plants has the potential added effect of killing all of them fish I’d rather not gamble it. It would suck to have all of your fish die suddenly and mysteriously a couple days or weeks after adding new plants. Also, if you want snails it would be safer to get them from someone who has an established healthy aquarium already as they are known to carry some pretty nasty stuff too. That was a lot but I hope it might help in the future. =)

You can break up the moss balls but they may take several years to get to the size that yours is currently if you have a nice one. They do propagate on their own if you just wanted to let them as well. The hardest part with breaking them up is getting them to become round again. You have to mold the small ones quite regularly to get them to round out, or you could provide them with a strong current that rolls them in an even manner so that they round out. If you break your ball up and attach it to a surface you can also get it to grow in a carpet like manner and propagate any extra as it grows. You can find almost everything you could want to know about your Marimo ball here  http://www.marimoballs.com/ If you want your Marimo to be low maintenance I would let it propagate on its own and flick it around every so often. You can always buy more as you can afford to until you have the amount you want.

[PewPewPew]

^^^ I agree.

Be careful where you learn to propagate... many places on the internet have no clue what to actually do and keep spewing out the same incorrect info that they find from other misinformed sites.

The banana plants can be propogated, but youre gonna have to wait a few months until theyre healthy/used to your tank enough to not die of shock from being propgated while vulnerable...

The sword...dont bother.

You dont know what the last one was? Thats not good, hopefully its truly aquatic..