Banana Plant From Nasty Store

[ace61502]

Last week I printed a list of several LFS I hadn't know of previously and went to visit one of them today. As soon as I went through the door I knew I would NEVER buy a fish there. It REEKED. Then I see catfish (close to 2ft long) and huge Pacus and a pair of gars in a 4ft tank. Then I see rays in a tank that wasn't as deep (front to back, not top to bottom) as they were wide. Then I see rainbow fish in tanks with nasty, cloudy, green water. I was disgusted and it only got worse. There was a MASSIVE (but gorgeous, red dorsal, had some yellow on it, too) catfish in a plastic trough looking thing. They had lots of species I hadn't seen anywhere else, but all in nasty, bare glass tanks. Some of them weren't even half full of water. The only tank that looked good was one they had some live plants in, with clown loaches, angelfish and some more rainbows. Michael (the 4 year old) wanted a banana plant. I haven't seen them anywhere else, and it was just a couple bucks, so I relented.

Now for the purpose of the post. What do I need to do to this thing to clean it before putting it in my tank? I'm off to read about banana plants now, but I don't want to be introducing anything nasty to my tank! We picked the one that was the greenest and had a good healthy leaf on it. Saw rainbows nibbling at the leafless stems, so assuming it must be pretty tasty.

One thing for sure, I will NEVER step foot in there again. YUCK.

 

[ace61502]

No one? Will tap water kill off any nasties? Do I need something stronger?

 

[GrayScale]

Sloshing them around in a bucket of tank water should do the trick. I always do that before adding any new plants just in case there are snail eggs or other debris on them.

 

[coldcazzie]

If you're concerned about nasties coming in on the plant then you could dip it in a 1 part bleach to 20 parts water solution (the same strength you would use to clean a fishtank), and then rinse in a strongly dechlorinated mix, ie, water with about 4-5 x the normal dechlor dose in it. Then rinse with tank water and add.

However, I have never tried this so I don't know anything about whether the plant leaves would withstand being dipped in bleach... I would research first and wait for someone else to comment before you try it... sorry I cant give a definitive answer

 

[ace61502]

Thanks!

I've seen one site that says bleach CAN kill plants, and to use it as a last resort. That site also only mentioned dips for snails, not for parasites or bacteria, which is what I'm concerned about. Snails don't bother me too much. I've already got them and kinda like them.