# Bob's tropical plants.. :(



## PewPewPew (Nov 26, 2010)

Wragh! I bought plants from Bob's Tropical Plants and recieved my order the other day. I ordered two anacharis, a java fern and a netrite snail, as well as a small bit of drift wood (and a heat pack for the snail).

The other day, I got an email saying he refunded me a dollar...hm. He claimed he couldnt ship the wood "safely" What? Oh well. He bumped up the heat pack to a 72 with the price difference.

I was soooo excited to get my stuff!! DD

...I got it all in a nasty bag, smushed together, with my snail in an even smaller bag inside. Eww. But oh well, yaaayyy! I thought.

No.



I put these plants into my critter keeper by themselves and spotted a number of unwanted critters on them! (All too small to photograph) There were very very small creatures (dark colored) that looked like spiders, and others that looked like tiny ticks! Ew! There are also super small snails, a few of them. Im nervous about them; I dont want them to infest my tank!! DX
I also recieved an extra snail.. Possibly a nice gesture, but I ordered ONE for a reason! Agh! He's black and similar to my olive netrite, and will be living with Dan in his ten gal :c
I washed them off in warm water repeatedly and put them in my 1.5 (which is QTing the two remaining tetras and snails...) and STILL had a nasty creature! It was like a slug, clearish white and like a cm or two long.  Ergh.

My java fern was a wreck. Like, demolished. Eaten away almost completley! WTH?! 

Im nervous that somethings may have spread into my big tank with Alle. The whole seeing that sluggy thing after washing them is freaking me out!  I did a 75% water change and spiohned the gravel like mad.
What should I do about that? Should I do a 100% change and clean the substrate, etc? It'd hurt my cycle :c

Also, anyone know his return/complaint policy? Im gonna send an email with pictures, but dont know what to expect :ccccc

I just wanted Alle to be happy, but wahhhh! :'c Pics to be posted soon.


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## PewPewPew (Nov 26, 2010)

Oh! And a lot of the anacharis I got was light and dark brown, which I presume to be dead or dying. Is this correct?
I mean, I paid a dollar each for what I thought I was only getting a single sprig of, but still!
It has green sprigs, too, but not very many in comparison.Should I get rid of the brown?


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## shinybetta (Jul 3, 2010)

Uggg:| I wouldn't worry about having two nerite snails, they only reproduce in brackish to full saltwater. The slug thing is probably a planaria. It is fine, and the fish enjoy eating them.


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## PewPewPew (Nov 26, 2010)

Thats good. I havent seen any yet, but Im really not happy that what I bought came with so much GUNK. Like, ew! Seriously!! D:
Im hoping the other little (black) snail is a nerite


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## kfish (Oct 5, 2010)

YUCK! I was tempted to switch to a different vendor for price, but nevermind... I'm sticking with Planted Aquariums Central.


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## Hadouken441 (Jan 27, 2010)

Bobstropical Plants is amazing. i've orderred many times there and the owner is extremlly nice.


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## Lion Mom (Jun 14, 2010)

kfish said:


> YUCK! I was tempted to switch to a different vendor for price, but nevermind... I'm sticking with Planted Aquariums Central.


YUP - I will ONLY purchase plants from Heather!!! :-D She may not be the cheapest around, but she sure is the best, IMO!


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## kfish (Oct 5, 2010)

Lion Mom said:


> YUP - I will ONLY purchase plants from Heather!!! :-D She may not be the cheapest around, but she sure is the best, IMO!


I got six free baby golden mystery snails off of some of her plants, but that's been my only critter experience! At least they're snails you'd normally pay for, and they don't breed like crazy and it's easy enough to just remove their eggs if they do breed. But we have enough tanks to distribute them around and I'm so okay with algae control in my tank! XD

Her plants are always in great shape and she loves to throw in extra bunches of stem plants.


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## PewPewPew (Nov 26, 2010)

I wanted to get them from there, but it was a bit too much D: Im finding more and more snails on things, ergh! NOT COOL! DX


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## Luimeril (Dec 29, 2010)

i heard dunking the plants in ice water will get rid of unwanted critters. >.> dunno if that's true, or not, though.


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## kfish (Oct 5, 2010)

Maybe dipping back and forth between really hot water and ice water will shock the critters to death... I could see that working, since you can euthanize a fish with ice cold water.

Just hope the plants would be okay!


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## Lion Mom (Jun 14, 2010)

Luimeril said:


> i heard dunking the plants in ice water will get rid of unwanted critters. >.> dunno if that's true, or not, though.


Hmmm...... not sure how the plants would react to that. What I do is soak the plants overnight in a 5 gal. bucket (only used for fish stuff) in straight tap water. I figure if there IS anything in/on them, the chlorine will kill it, but not hurt the plants. So far, so good.


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

I've only had good experiences with Bob's. I didn't like that she sent all my plants in one bag and didn't label (even though I told her I'm new to plants and needed ID's on them) but besides that everything was great. My snails were in the same bag (I got one mystery and one nerite) but they are both extremely healthy and happy.

I always dip my plants in a very mild bleach solution and then QT them for 2 weeks. You should quarantine every living thing that goes in your tank, even plants. I never noticed bugs on mine but then again as soon as I open them up they get dipped. I did notice quite a few pond snails however but they're killed by the bleach.

Edit to add.. I'm ordering my next set of plants from Heather however because she has almost everything I'm looking for (except christmas moss) but BOY is she expensive O.O I'm not even ordering everything I probably need and it's already like $52 including shipping.


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## PewPewPew (Nov 26, 2010)

Eesh! Thats expensive.
And I have no access to bleach, nor would I want to use it..Idk, it freaks me out! They are QTing, but Im still disappointed in the fact that they had them to begin with D: 
The snails, Idk what theyre called, but they are REALLY tiny and have a spiral-y shell that goes out like a pyramid. Are they the type that multiply like mad? D:


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## B3TTA LUVA (Feb 13, 2011)

Wow, all those snails on your plants!!?? That disgusting. They could have dieseases!!! :shock2: I myself have never been to big on "snails"....


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## kfish (Oct 5, 2010)

PewPewPew said:


> Eesh! Thats expensive.
> And I have no access to bleach, nor would I want to use it..Idk, it freaks me out! They are QTing, but Im still disappointed in the fact that they had them to begin with D:
> The snails, Idk what theyre called, but they are REALLY tiny and have a spiral-y shell that goes out like a pyramid. Are they the type that multiply like mad? D:


Don't snails die in salt? Maybe you can add like 3 tsp/gal of aquarium salt?


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

IME it doesn't matter what kind of snail they are.. as long as you don't over feed and do your best to pick them out occasionally they won't take over. I have malaysian trumpet snails in all my tanks (you can google for pics). They're known to multiply but I don't have much of a problem. When I do water changes I pick a bunch out and kill them and every once in a while I offer to send peeps on here snails if they want them.

In all honestly.. live plants are going to have critters.. there's really no getting around it.


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## PewPewPew (Nov 26, 2010)

True, but aaghhh. The intensity of volume of critters isnt what I had expected.
I think they were nomming my poor Java fern, too, which is totally just pbbt. Distroyed. :C It seems to have like eggs (brown?) on it.







:c








A snail, hard to see let alone take a picture of x_x Very tiny, and I think theyre dying off. Wewt.


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## Lion Mom (Jun 14, 2010)

kfish said:


> Don't snails die in salt? Maybe you can add like 3 tsp/gal of aquarium salt?


No - plants don't do well in salt either.


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## B3TTA LUVA (Feb 13, 2011)

Oh, Saw the pictures of your plants mg: that is bad!!!


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## demonr6 (Dec 27, 2010)

1fish2fish said:


> I've only had good experiences with Bob's. I didn't like that she sent all my plants in one bag and didn't label (even though I told her I'm new to plants and needed ID's on them) but besides that everything was great. My snails were in the same bag (I got one mystery and one nerite) but they are both extremely healthy and happy.
> 
> I always dip my plants in a very mild bleach solution and then QT them for 2 weeks. You should quarantine every living thing that goes in your tank, even plants. I never noticed bugs on mine but then again as soon as I open them up they get dipped. I did notice quite a few pond snails however but they're killed by the bleach.
> 
> Edit to add.. I'm ordering my next set of plants from Heather however because she has almost everything I'm looking for (except christmas moss) but BOY is she expensive O.O I'm not even ordering everything I probably need and it's already like $52 including shipping.


How light is that bleach solution you use? I have never had issues but it is a good thing come to think of it. I am just scared of killing off the plants and then introducing anything with bleach into my tank and well..


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## 1fish2fish (Sep 10, 2009)

One part bleach to ten parts water... Dip a few times then rinse good. Repeat a couple of times and rinse again really good. QT in a bucket for a week or two and yyou should nt have any problems IME
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## PewPewPew (Nov 26, 2010)

B3TTA LUVA said:


> Oh, Saw the pictures of your plants mg: that is bad!!!


 I know T-T And I was so excited about it!


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## vaygirl (Sep 10, 2009)

Java fern will have these little brown bumps on the bottom of leaves. It's normal. I have a ton of pond snails in all my tanks but I have a dwarf puffer I feed them to. They're not so bad. Your fish may even eat them. Wraith and Logan suck them out of their shells just like Huey does.


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## demonr6 (Dec 27, 2010)

1fish2fish said:


> One part bleach to ten parts water... Dip a few times then rinse good. Repeat a couple of times and rinse again really good. QT in a bucket for a week or two and yyou should nt have any problems IME
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Great! Thanks for that info. All new plants get bathed from now on.


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