plants in pots

lee8040

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my local shop sells plants in little plastic pots. should the plants be left in these or taken out and planted directly in the gravel?
 
well,i bought today two plants and there were also in those plastic pots.i asked the LFS and said to keep them in the pots.i wouldn't be suprised to hear the opposite though coz pet shop's owners here are useless.they know NOTHING.so i'll be waiting for a reply here to be sure too.
cheers :hyper:
 
I think its better to take them out. If it contains stem plants, you will most likely want to spread the pants out so that light can get to all the lower leaves.

For the plants that get large root systems, taking them out of the pots allows the roots to spread out more.
 
There are good reasons for keeping them in pots, for example, if you have a lot of fish which burrow in the substrate and uproot everything. If there is no real reason, it is better to remove the plants from the pots, cutting the pot away if necessary to prevent damaging the roots.

Cut of any obvious dead root material, use sharp tools, you don't want to encourage rot.

Frequently "a" plant in a pot, not just stem plants, will be several, and you can spread them about a bit.
 
well.i was afraid to remove them from the pots coz i don't know how they will do without the support of the glass-wool and plastic but maybe i will try to see how it goes.thanks for the tips B)
 
from what i've been told in the past (both here and in shops) be careful whats in the pots - some plants have a material around them in the pots which is fibourous and irritating to fish, indeed planting up just the other day it irritated my finger :p, thats probably the glass wool you mention and I personally wouldn't want it in my tank. It can also break up into small pieces if attacked by a violent enough tank occupant and end up floating around.

As others have said depending on the size of your tank you'll want to spread the bunch of 5 or so plants around the tank, otherwise depending on how much foliage / root they create they may choke one another and its easier to seperate them before they've done this.

Where the packaging can be useful - the little plastic pots (at least the ones in my local maidenhead aquatics) are like little baskets, you can fix the plants to them if you're indanger of uprooting and the roots can still spread. I also find the little ceramic inserts handy for this, although I don't know whether they should be left in the aquarium long term.
 

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