Pets@home Plants

[Aqua Tom]

I have got a nice voucher for P@H for Xmas. While I will not buy fish from there I may well purchase a lot of plants for my newly cycled tank. Anyone have experience, good or bad, of p@h plants?

 

[KittyKat]

If you do the usual checks as when buying fish, then you shouldn't have a problem. From what I hear, they do sell non-aquatic plants too though. Keep in mind that they might soak plants in snail killer.

 

[Gill]

The Pets at Home Tropica Plants are great and Very Good Quality, Never had problems with them

 

[elisew]

As long as you know which plants you`re looking for you`ll be fine. A great tip I`ve picked up from here is to choose plants that don`t stand up on their own without flopping over, if they have a thick stem then I think generally they`re not aquatic plants but I`m sure someone will correct me if I`m wrong

Make sure you give any plants you buy are washed thoroughly before adding them to your tank, any plants I`ve bought from P@H in the past have been infested with snails and eggs

 

[KittyKat]

A great tip I`ve picked up from here is to choose plants that don`t stand up on their own without flopping over, if they have a thick stem then I think generally they`re not aquatic plants but I`m sure someone will correct me if I`m wrong

(Unless they are aquatic plants which were grown out of water at the nursery!)

 

[james_fish]

Been okay for me in the past Just keep your eye out for the snails as always!

James.

 

[Uriel]

Yeah was sold non aquatic plants and they also came with snails

 

[Fraoch]

Be sure to check carefully for snails, i bought some of their plans and my new tank got completely infested and they are really difficult to get rid of. After 4 months i still have over 40 snails crawling about.

 

[Uriel]

Be sure to check carefully for snails, i bought some of their plans and my new tank got completely infested and they are really difficult to get rid of. After 4 months i still have over 40 snails crawling about.

I sent in the professionals. Assasin snails

 

[JoshuaA]

Their prices were quite reasonable for bunches though for some reason they've decided to almost double them at our local store. Some of them are ok but they are mostly stem weeds which really aren't worth £4.95. Had some Vallis from p@h but because it was potted and sponged in when I opened it all the leaves were independent from the roots resulting in a plant around £3.95 completely melting in days.

I would say go for it if you just want to get some plants, otherwise I would say hold it back for fish food/treatments or replacement equipment.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Blast, just been to the local P@H & they hardly had any plants in.

The fish section was packed with people buying new fishy type stuff though. Lots of tanks bought for christmas methinks.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Depending on the fish you have and plan to have in the future, the P@H price for Clearseal tanks make them attractive purchases as quarantine tanks, if the idea of plants falls through.

~£33 for a 30"x15"x12" (88 litres) is pretty competitive!
http/www.petsathome.com/shop/aquarium-by-clearseal-(available-in-store-only)-36345

 

[Aqua Tom]

Depending on the fish you have and plan to have in the future, the P@H price for Clearseal tanks make them attractive purchases as quarantine tanks, if the idea of plants falls through.

~£33 for a 30"x15"x12" (88 litres) is pretty competitive!
http/www.petsathome.com/shop/aquarium-by-clearseal-(available-in-store-only)-36345

nice, but I have got to get this one up & running with fish in etc before the wife will even consider another tank in the house

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with both KK and elisew that plants that are both good and bad can come from any source, big box pet stores included. I've had some from them that have grown just fine.

LL and I still just recently back from the big plant conference where we toured Florida Aquatic Nurseries and I'd very roughly say it's a majority of our nice aquarium plants that we consider "very aquatic" that are indeed grown up in the air (with lots of water available to them though) before they are shipped to the distribution centers that ship them out to the LFSs. There were also considerable numbers being grown fully submersed though also. (I will also say that I was completely galled at how gorgeous these plants were and how completely unavailable they seem to be (the retail system somehow just can't get them to us at all) to us in USA.. I mean these plants were 10 times more gorgeous than anyting you ever see in nearly any LFS, short of perhaps one of the planted tank places in San Francisco or something.

Most people don't have the patience but one thing I've done when I don't want to quarantine plants for a month but don't want snails is to get a stool and sit at the sink under bright lights and simply go over both surfaces of every leaf with my fingers and eyes and remove any snail eggs or snails. They aren't microscopic after all, but it can be incredibly tedious especially where leaves tightly cluster down near plant crowns.

~~waterdrop~~