I've had mixed results. My Amazon Swords and Anubias from tubes are super healthy and probably twice as big as when I bought them last summer. The Peacock ferns died right away. My best advice is, go with hardy plants that will easily weather the transition from the emersed gel they're in to being submersed. And if there are more than 2 visible brown leaves, don't buy the plant.
I also tried those plant bulbs they sell. Only one grew, it was a lily and it was gorgeous, but got too big for my tank fast
As long as you buy ones without too many dead leaves and a plant that can survive the environment in your tank (lighting, etc.) Then I have had more success with these plants than plants I have ordered online.
They don't seem to go through as much meltdown as plants I have shipped to me and so far they are doing very well now outnumbering the plants I originally ordered online. The anubias or wisteria from petco I have are doing especially well (I have more than 8!) The tropica fern (which is a type of java fern) is doing ok but still needs time for me to trust it, I've ahd java fern from petco die before.
I bought Mondo Grass and Peacock Fern in those tubes, and later on found out they're not aquatic plants. -_-
But I got a Rosette Sword in one of those tubes, and it's still doing awesome in my tank and it's been about 5 months.
Yeah, you have to watch for that. I wish the tubes had at least some basic instructions about the specific plant it contained. For example you would buy the anubias in the tube and bury it in the substrate - unless you look it up online you wouldn't have known not to bury most of the root area or it will rot.
Petstores shouldn't really have to inform you. You should always know what you are buying and if it will work in your tank or what ever it is. Why would you want to trust them any ways?
Some of the plants in the tubes are aquatic and some aren't. Before you buy them familiarize yourself with plants and the lighting and co2 requirements.
if you are buying something from someone no matter what it is,they should be able to give you some info on the product. wether you are buying diapers,food,alcohol,fish,plants,a car, a house, whatever you buy its the sellers responsibility to inform you of the ingredients or origins if questioned
I got my argintine sword from Petco. I bought Kyoto for an exiperiment. I put one in water with leaves above the water and rootin water. I put the other in peatmoss. the one in peatmoss seems better. Leaf wise there the same.
you can also buy online. I've only gotten anubias from the tube and so far so good. But they feel different than "real" anubias..Maybe it is just me..who knows.
Do you really want Petco, that knows nothing about fish and planted tanks(dog and cat care isn't that difficult), to educate you on something? I can see if it is an aquarium store. It is a petshop, most employees aren't hobbyists and need money. At a store that specializes in aquariums, like the one by me (Neptune Aquatics), they are all hobbyists and I doubt you would even be able to work there if you weren't a hobbyist.
I always look and see what people say about something and what it needs. Would you go in and buy a dog with no knowledge expecting someone to tell you everything? You need to really do you're own research because they can also be biased.
i just bought a bunch of snails from petco and the guy i spoke to in the store knew everything about them,i allready did research on here and other forums before i went into the store and the guy knew what he was talking about,he said he had many tanks himself for many years,sometimes your lucky u get good people other times u get kids doin part time work with no knowledge of anything but i find u can always tell when someone doesnt know what they are talkin about
That is why you do research. If the person is telling you the right information and it isn't obvious then you can listen. I have had to correct employees saying cichlids were gouramis. Sometimes you get someone good, but one of my rules of fish keeping is "Don't take a petstore employee's advice" this can be broken because once in a while you have a legit hobbyist. Most of the time, you have someone that says a goldfish in a 1 gallon tank/bowl is fine.
There are knowlegible pet stores. I used to have an LFS I did not like them. They said plants were bad for fish tanks. They put cold water bottles in aquariums.
I have yet to find a petshop employee who knows a darn thing about fish or the more exotic pets like chinchillas. Even if they claim to be hobbiest, they still might be wrong. I had one girl at petco tell me the reason my bettas were not breeding was because I need to have the male in a tank with 3 females so he can choose which one to breed with :shock:. She said she was a fish breeder. No idea what fish she was breeding but it obviously was not bettas. I hope.
Anyways - the tube plants. Some are Aquatic and some aren't. The Anubias, Amazon sword and wysteria are all aquatic but most of them are not true aquatic plants at all.
if they happen to have the same plant available in the actual plant tank, you should get it from there instead (they usually have large supplies of the general standbyes, such as wisteria, hornwort, primrose etc) since they'll usually be healthier than the ones in the tubes.some of them (most swords and ferns etc) you'll have to use the tubes, since they take up more room and therefore more "retail space" and hence usually aren't planted in the tank. steer clear of the "plant bundle" ones, though, they're notorious for having large quantities of non-aquatic or semi-aquatic plants that will do nothing but die and then poison your tank as they decompose unless you're set up to plant them with emerged leaves.
There are plenty of plants for a 5 gallon you can have semi submerged plants growing from the lid. You can have Marimo, Anarchis, Crypts, Java Fern/Moss, and ect.
Well, the tube of all the plants all said "Aquatic Plant". So how was I supposed to know that they'd sell semi-aquatic plant and label them as aquatic? I know you can't really trust most pet store employees because they've told me dumb things that I knew were wrong, but you'd think the higher-ups in the company would know what they're talking about and I should be able to trust the labeling on what they're selling, but with these plants you can't because they're all labeled "Aquatic", and then when they started melting in my tank I researched them and found out they are not aquatic.
You should do your own research and know what you're buying when it comes to living things that may die but I totally agree that the actual company should have better labels and yes, it should be up to the company to tell you what you're buying. That's pretty messed up that they say that.
my petco has 2 people with a clue about fish but no one could even tell me if they had any java fern. the girl said no. then i went to the tanks and the tubes and found java fern in both.so i bought one of each to compare and found....no real difference they both are a little beat up yet. the one in the petco tube is giving off plantlets like crazy. also i picked up a windelov yesterday in the tube.i ended getting 4 plants off of it. i,ve had great luck with their mixed bulbs. only one didn't grow for me.
If I remember right plantlets growing off crazy is a sign of bad conditions.
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