Making Plants with Pesticides Shrimp Safe

[neoyyf]

I have recently bought some plants off ebay (i have set up more tanks!) and was wondering if anyone knew how i could make it shrimp safe. I bought the cheaper ones.

I bulk bought plants 10 months ago. I rinsed it numerous times and soaked them in bicarbonate soda for 1 week in a bucket. I also exposed the plants to strong light because i noticed they were melting the next day and also read that strong light can help degrade pesticides.

I put one stem in the tank and it wiped out the shrimps. I only had 10 shrimp at the time and i couldnt save any as when i noticed they started dying, i couldnt catch them in the rock pile i had made for them and hoped some would surivive.

This time i wont put plants with shrimp until 6 months later as i know theyl be safe then but anyone have any tips or tricks for me except buying the lab grown ones?

 

[Colin_T]

Most pesticides can leave a residue behind for months or even years. The best way to deal with plants is to grow them outdoors in a shallow tray of water so the leaves grow out of water, like a normal pot plant. Then collect seeds or take cuttings from new stems and grow the cuttings in your tank.

The only other option is to grow them in a tub or bucket of water outside and change the water each day. Do this for a month and they should be clean but you might want to put a shrimp in the tub to test them, rather than putting the plants in your tank and wiping out all the shrimp.

Remove them from the substrate too if they are in pots, because the chemicals can sit in the substrate.

 

[seangee]

They don't have to be lab grown but must be from the EU. Recently I have only been buying "shrimp safe" plants from online retailers and I have to say the quality of the plants has been much better.

Plants from Asia must be treated and there is no guaranteed way to make them safe.

 

[Essjay]

That's what I do as well - only buy plants that are 'shrimp safe'. If the seller doesn't say it, I go somewhere else. There are several sellers on Ebay and other sites specialising in shrimps that sell shrimp safe plants.

When the import of apple snails in to the EU was banned a few years ago, they were also going to ban the import of aquarium plants from any area where apple snails are endemic. But the legislation that actually went through allows the import of plants from these areas provided they have been treated with snail killing chemicals. These chemicals also kill shrimps. Plants grown in the EU have never come into contact with apple snails (in theory) so they don't have to be treated.

 

[NickAu]

When the import of apple snails in to the EU was banned a few years ago, they were also going to ban the import of aquarium plants from any area where apple snails are endemic

Are they afraid the Apple snail might lay eggs on the plants? A quick salt water dip will sort the snails out

I only buy tissue culture plants now, sure they are a bit more expensive and take longer to grow in but that's no big deal.

This photo was taken about 6 weeks ago
https://imgur.com/jtuDlEp

This photo was taken a few days ago
https://imgur.com/epO9Yh1

 

[Essjay]

Are they afraid the Apple snail might lay eggs on the plants?

That's the reason. Given the problems some countries have with non-native species being released into the wild, I assume they wouldn't trust any importer/purchaser to clean the plants properly. But if the plants need documentation to say they have been treated, bureaucrats trust that.

 

[Colin_T]

Mystery snails lay their eggs out of water tho so if you are buying plants from Asia and the plants are grown in water, they won't have mystery snail eggs on them. They might have Lymnaea and other snail eggs tho. The egg clusters are huge too so it's not hard to see them, big pale pink or cream clusters of eggs an inch in diameter

 

[Essjay]

Ah but we are talking about bureaucrats who sit in an office all day long and have no idea about the real world

 

[Colin_T]

Ah but we are talking about bureaucrats who sit in an office all day long and have no idea about the real world

Point taken.

I applied for a job at AQIS (Australian Quarantine Inspection Service). I didn't get it because I kept fish. It turns out they won't hire people that have an interest in fish, plants or animals because "you are more likely to let certain things into the country".

So instead of hiring people who know what fish is what and aquatic snails, shrimp, plants, etc, they hire people with no knowledge of fish and they let all sorts of stuff in.

An example of this was back in the 90s we got in some freshwater pipefish (related to seahorses). They looked the same as saltwater pipefish and were kept the same way except in fresh water. The pipefish were kept in the quarantine room for 2 weeks (as required by law) and they were inspected 3 or 4 times by AQIS officers. They were on the import papers and everything was in black & white for them. The officers released the pipefish at the end of the 2 week quarantine period and one of them said, "they are cool, what are they?"

Then after we told them they were freshwater pipefish they said "oh, you better not sell any of them yet, I have to check with my boss to see if you are allowed." They weren't on the import list so shouldn't have made it through the inspection at the airport, let alone be released after 2 weeks in the quarantine room. After a couple more weeks they said we could keep and sell them because they posed no risk to native fishes.

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Another time one of the shops brought in some snakehead gudgeons. They were listed as snakeheads on the paperwork and shouldn't have made it into the country because they are on the noxious species list. They went through the quarantine period and got released. Several months later the stuff hit the fan and there was a recall.

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And the quarantine laws differ from state to state. In WA the fish are all inspected at the airport before the shop can take them. In the eastern states fish were picked up by the shop and taken to the quarantine room and put in the tanks. Then AQIS would go to the shop and check the fish in the tanks. Needless to say only a small number of fish ever made it to the shop to be inspected. Shops brought in all sorts of stuff and simply took it home after picking it up at the airport, unloaded the illegal stuff and took the legal stuff to the shop to be inspected.

This went on for years before the government changed it to what we had in WA. There were literally thousands of illegal fish coming into the country every week because of this. The government was dumbfounded when they worked it out.