Unfortunately, there has been a recent trend at local pet shops of shops
selling common pot plants or bog plants as aquarium plants to unsuspecting fish
keepers, and if you are not a seasoned fish keeper there is no way of knowing
what you just bought. Meaning new people in the hobby fall prey to this
predatory practice, they buy these plants not knowing what they just bought,
then in a month or two these plants die not because of not being taken care of
properly but because these unsuspecting fish keepers were sold plants that are
not truly aquatic. And in some cases, this stops new fish keepers from ever
keeping live plants ever again.
Who is to blame for
this?
I place the blame squarely on the shops. These shops know exactly what
they are selling fish keepers, and they can easily avoid getting into trouble
because the plant won’t die immediately but a month or two later and the
inexperienced fish keeper will in most cases blame themselves for killing the
plants. This article will help both new and experienced fish keepers avoid the
pitfalls of buying the incorrect plants for your aquarium, and in the process
save you a lot of money and potentially kill your fish when the plants start
rotting. Which in turn will cause your Ammonia/Nitrates to spike, causing all
sorts of trouble in your aquarium.
What tools can I
use to avoid buying the wrong plants?
If you are an owner of an Android phone there is this very handy app
called “Google Lens” before going
to the shop install this on your smartphone. Google Lens is an image
recognition technology developed by Google. It can understand what you’re
looking at and use that information to copy or translate text, identify plants
and animals, explore locales or menus, discover products, find visually similar
images, and take other useful actions. It is not always accurate but can be
extremely helpful in a pinch, watch the below video to get a better idea of
what Google Lens is and how it works.
If you for some reason you don’t have the app installed on your phone,
another quick way is to check the names listed for the plants that are being
sold. A quick google will quickly bring up if it is aquatic or not, and if the
shop cannot give you the names, then it is a clear indication that you should
avoid buying these plants. They also sometimes get sold in bundles as “various” plants
or “mixed” this is a
good indication that these aren’t aquatic. Baring that I have shared a PDF
file, which you can find here which
you can save on your phone and use as a visual reference for buying aquarium
plants. If they match visually, then you know you should avoid buying these
plants.
What can happen if
you buy a none aquatic or blog plant for your aquarium?
The least bad thing that can happen is you spent your hard money on
something that will eventually just rot and die. Worst case scenario the plants
you bought start rotting and in turn spike your Ammonia and Nitrite levels
which can possibly cause the death of your fish or cause them a massive amount
of stress. Not to mention the effort and cleanup you will need to do to remove
them from your aquarium.
Here is a list of
the most common house/bog plants being sold as aquatic plants:
Here is a list of the most
common house/bog plants that are being sold in the aquarium hobby today. Note
there is a load of other plants that are being sold as aquarium plants, the
list is endless. This is just a list of the most common ones I have seen being
sold in local shops and online stores. So keep an eye out for them.
It is not all shops
that are to blame…
Not all shops are involved in this predatory practice of selling common
house plants to unsuspecting fish keepers. So it is always better to support
the shops that don’t use this practice. Hopefully, this article will help both
newbies and seasoned veterans in the fish-keeping industry avoid the pitfalls
of buying the wrong plants.
