Plant Warning

[ian]

It has come to our attention that some plants, that are imported in from Asia are/have been subject to pesticides when grown or stored. The pesticide used is thought to be something along the lines of Permethrin. These pesticides have uninvitedly attributed to a few cases of invert (shrimp) deaths, fish seem to fine with this pesticide. We are highlighting this in the planted section as shrimp tanks are becoming more and more popular. The price of shrimp isn't also exactly cheap. Some shrimp keepers have lost hundreds of pounds worth of shrimp and even more selling on profit.

As we are not allowed to name names of sellers who import from Asia, we ask you to be especially careful when buying plants that come straight from the seller via Asia without any quarantine time.

If you do buy plants this way then we should stress that you give your plants a quarantine time, of at least 2-3 days, changing the water regularly and also running carbon in you filter when adding the plants. This will hopefully get rid of any residual pesticide, but isn't guaranteed.


NB, plants from Europe don't use pesticides (Tropica, Aquafluer etc etc), these don't need to be quarantined, but do require a wash before planting.

 

[ZoddyZod]

good info. Thanks for sharing.

 

[micko]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[bumbleweasle]

Cheers, Ian.

 

[BigTom]

Good post Ian.

A couple of points...

Firstly, I think it's always worth testing new plants with a 'sacrificial' shrimp or two before adding them to the tank (after a good wash and any other quarantine procedures). Place shrimp in a container with water from their tank, and some food/moss/leaves/whatever so they feel comfortable. Wait for them to calm down and be happily eating. Then add in any new plants to the container and watch for any reaction. If there is pesticide on the plants then the shrimp will probably start frantically swimming around and backflipping within a few minutes. To be totally sure leave them in with the new plants for up to 24 hours. If all behaviour is still normally then you're in the clear.

Secondly, even if buying plants from reputable growers such as Tropica or Aquafleur then I'd say it's still worth testing them before adding to the shrimp tank, in case they have picked up any contaminants on their way through the distributors and retailers.

 

[coldcazzie]

I will echo what Tom said but I'd suggest perhaps using daphnia rather than a shrimp - any plants that have an effect on daphnia will have the same on shrimp

 

[adrianborg]

Many thanks for this. I received the following circular note from PlantedTanks yesterday:

(quote starts here)
Following the increase in shrimp and crustacean deaths related to the addition of plants to tanks, I last week contacted FERA who are responsible for the UK import legislation adherence. I also emailed the farms in Singapore and Borneo for a formal response. Please note that all South East Asian supplied plants are affected - not just plants from PlantedTanks.

http/www.fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/

The above link is the site for Fera who clearly state what they do and what they don't...

I can confirm the following information has been provided by the farms in Singapore who supply plants to the UK market. This information has been consulted on with respected persons in this industry.

Phytosanitary certification requires the plants to be free of pests and disease prior to export to the receiving country. The methods applied are as follows – information supplied per farm:

Our premium plants are dipped in BUPROFEZIN (0.01%) & TRICHLORFON (0.08%) for the duration 120 minutes

Our primary supplier for standard plants dip in IMIDACLOPRID 18.3% V/V (0.005%) for 45 minutes

Our second supplier for standard plant range dip in IMIDACLOPRID 18.3% V/V (0.005%) for 60 minutes

All farms advise that following exposure to the above chemicals, all plants are rinsed in freshwater – although they do not advise for how long. The advice from the farms for end customers is that they quarantine the plants in a plant only system before introducing to a tank populated with inverts & crustaceans etc.

Plants that are classed as overstock remain in our tanks until sold – this can be up to 6 days.

Reference has been made against all three chemicals detailed above, and as such we will now produce a recommendation sheet for our customers to use about plant quarantine.

Our recommendation from today will be that all plants from ANY supplier should be quarantined in Alkaline water for a minimum of 2 hours to 48 hours, then finally rinsed in tap water prior to addition to any tank with livestock present. Please note - we say a MINIMUM of 2 hours and suggest that 48 hours be better... don't forget to perform water changes when appropriate.

Alkaline water can be easily made using caustic soda or hydrogen peroxide mixed with water until the pH reaches 8.5. Remember to wash your plants in tap water as a final preparation before they go in your tank.

What has been specifically noticed is that

Trichlorofon is a particularly aggressive organophosphate pesticide. It is however can be detected in acidic water up to 526 days at 20C at pH5.0. That said – if alkaline water is used – pH8.5 then this product is 99% degraded within 2 hours.

Buprofezin is an insecticide – specifically an acaricide. It is not approved for use in the UK. The degradation half life is 50 days within soil and 16 days in water at pH7.0, 20C. This product specifically requires extended quarantine of at least 48 hours.

Imidacloprid is a systemic insecticide. It has a 3 hour half life in water pH neutral. It is known to be non toxic to fish, moderately toxic to crustaceans and highly toxic to invertebrates. The addition of this chemical to water reputedly degrades to CO2 as a side effect of the degradation in the presence of light.

Kind regards

Tony
Planted Tanks
07725 409726
Email: [email protected]

(end quote)

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Great, some of my cherries are dying randomly. Think it's the crypts I got last week, well since then I've done a 100% water change after a re scape, do you reckon that should be shrimp safe now?

 

[coldcazzie]

For the record, as a result of this problem, Planted Tanks are changing their supplier from an Asian one to a European one, so the issue of pesticides that are not EU approved should hopefully not arise again

They will this week and next week be trialing the plants from the potential supplier, and assuming the feedback is good they will then offer plants from this supplier after that.

 

[snake007]

Thanks for the info.

 

[adrianborg]

For the record, as a result of this problem, Planted Tanks are changing their supplier from an Asian one to a European one, so the issue of pesticides that are not EU approved should hopefully not arise again

They will this week and next week be trialing the plants from the potential supplier, and assuming the feedback is good they will then offer plants from this supplier after that.

Thanks for this! I should also have pointed out the Planted Tanks sent this warning note out entirely on their own initiative and not in response to any question or complaint from me. I thought this was very good of them.

 

[BigTom]

For the record, as a result of this problem, Planted Tanks are changing their supplier from an Asian one to a European one, so the issue of pesticides that are not EU approved should hopefully not arise again

They will this week and next week be trialing the plants from the potential supplier, and assuming the feedback is good they will then offer plants from this supplier after that.

Thanks for this! I should also have pointed out the Planted Tanks sent this warning note out entirely on their own initiative and not in response to any question or complaint from me. I thought this was very good of them.

It was, however, as a direct result of complaints and bad press that they had been getting on planted tank forums, despite having been aware that their plants were killing shrimp for nearly a year.

 

[coldcazzie]

Planted Tanks are now officially moving to their new European supplier from the 1st March.

 

[BigTom]

PFK have now covered this very informatively - http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=4831

 

[SuperColey1]

I won't suggest this is linked to the problem above however I bought some stems a couple of weeks ago from Pets at home. The kind where you get 6 or 7 stems of Elodea in a ceramic ring.

Rinsed them off individually under fast flowing tap and put them in. Later that day all the CRS in that tank were dead

Point being that I went in, said I wanted X and Y out of their cascade and the girl said 'they look a bit ragged' Think we got some delivered today. She then fetched a box from the back and I selected what I wanted straight from the 'sealed' box she had to cut the tape on with Tropica print all over the box.

So I would be careful with ALL plants you purchase and not think this is an Asia import problem only.

I should add of course that just because they were in a box with Tropica printing on it, Someone along the line may have reused the box and these plants may not have come from Tropica, however something was on those plants and they hadn't seen the cascade water in the particular branch I bought them from.

Just a heads up

Andy