Sil Plants.. Do They Dissolve?

[minikarter]

Hi, It's been a looong time since my last post. Seems the forum has had a bit of a spring clean! Anyway, I have a betta, he's been going great for a while but one thing I'm struggling with is keeping healthy living plants.

I use a Arcadia 35L arc tank with 11W lamp. I'm very skint, so not so willing to buy new or expensive lighting, so want to get my greenery from silk plants. But, little hiccup, I was told in the maidenhead aquatics that silk plants dissolve in water? And they're priarily used for vivariums and terrariums for reptils etc.

What's the tropical fish forums response to this? It's them or plastic. but with the betta.. surely silk wont harm his fins at all.

Many thanks

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Silk or real plants are recommended with betta; I have silk in my tank and I think lots of people use them.

You may have been lied to, to get you to buy the expensive real plants.

 

[the biffster]

i had silk plants in one of my tanks for years they
fade a bit but i dont think i had any dissolve
over the four or five years they were in there
i know i used to put broad leaf ones in for angel
fish to spawn on . they would they want you to buy real plants of them

 

[meguro]

java fern and anubias prefer subdued lighting and are quite difficult to kill. only issue is that they dont get planted into substrate but attached to wood/rock/other

 

[Luimeril]

dissolving? o.0 i've had them fade after a long, long while, but never dissolve. you were fibbed to. x-x

 

[fishnovice]

All my tanks have synthetic plants, mainly silk and they still look OK after 8 months. Who ever heard of silk fabric dissolving? The reptile plants for vivariums may not be waterproof but aquarium silk plants will last for years and require no aintenance. Petshop man is lying

 

[the biffster]

All my tanks have synthetic plants, mainly silk and they still look OK after 8 months. Who ever heard of silk fabric dissolving? The reptile plants for vivariums may not be waterproof but aquarium silk plants will last for years and require no aintenance. Petshop man is lying

to make more money out of you they think
we are so gullible its all more money for them
you have to keep going back and buying new ones

 

[ZoddyZod]

I've had silk plants by Marina in the tank for about 9 months.....I'v found that some of the top coating of them has come loose and I've had to pick it out of the tank.

Maybe that's what they meant when they said 'dissolve'.

You may have been lied to, to get you to buy the expensive real plants.

if anything it's normally the other way around, silk ones are more expnesive than real.

 

[Assaye]

Aquarium silk plants won't dissolve. I can't vouch for anything that isn't intended for aquarium use.

I have silks in four tanks and with the exception of a little algae, they look great!

 

[nurglespuss]

Having kept both reptiles and fish, I can say that vivarium plants aren't always ideally suited to aquaria. Overtime, the laquering/dye etc. on the plants will fade (as mentioned) but as also noted, it can also come of in clumps. Silk plants designed for aquaria are more expensive than viv silks, because they are made to last in water.

So I would (personally) reccomend silk plants intended for aquarium use, but not viv silks.

If it were possible for to pick up an arc-pod (they are running very cheaply nowadays) you could have more plant success .

But if not, then perhaps surface plants would be better? Frogbit/amazonian frogbit, water lettuce etc. good fo the fish too.