stinky plants??!?!

[deeleywoman]

i just opened up a package of plants that just arrived today, and i think one of the snails that hitched a ride in the bag died en route, cuz the bag STINKS!!!! i only touched the plants with three of my fingertips, yet after washing with anti-bacterial dish soap twice, i still smell like i've just returned from a vacation in the bog of eternal stench. (kudos to everyone who gets that reference. you know more accurately what my fingers and living room smell like now.) so, what i'm wondering is...

a) is there any other reason for this horrid smell that i didn't think of?
b) are the plants still safe for my tank, or a loss?
c) if they're ok for the tank, are they safe for my turtle to eat?
d) how do i clean them and get rid of this ungodly stench?

oh, god my fingers smell like rotting death.... i think i'm going to go puke now :lipssealedsmilie:

[Bansart]

what type of plant is it? i think your right about the snail part.. I was collecting some snails off my aquarium to feed to my puffer on another tank, I received a phone call and forgot all about the snail in the container and it smelled like &%$$& for a a few days and stuck to everthing. Maybe you can keep your plants soaked in a cotainer of fresh water over night and just keep changing the water or just wash in the sink. do NOT use soap or any detergent btw.

[deeleywoman]

oh, i know better than that!!! i soaked my hands in a bowl of petzyme (8th wonder of the world, for pets owners!) and there's now just an underlying sense of "that's not quite right", but i know i can't do that to the plants lol... it's duckweed, btw, a whole ziplock full of it. i've counted at least four snails in it, no clue how many may be deceased. i'm kinda of afraid to open it again to find out >.>

[Kashta]

We'll need to know what kind of plants they are first, just to make sure they'll be okay. If so, you could try a very weak dilution of bleach in some water.. something like 1 part bleach to 15 or 20 parts water. Then dip them for about 5 minutes and rinse well under the tap. Use dechorinated water then until there's no scent of bleach anymore.

There are some plants that can't withstand this at all, so be sure to let us know what these are before trying this. But this should remove whatever the stinky stuff is.

Edit: Okay for duckweed, I would go ahead with this. Just use a mesh strainer for swishing and rinsing.

[deeleywoman]

i don't think the mesh in my strainer is tight enough for the duckweed... the duckweed is really tiny... >.>

how about putting it in a bowl, adding clean water, swishing it by hand (since my hand will never smell good ever again anyway), then carefully pouring out the yucky water- lather, rinse, repeat, until it doesn't smell anymore.... should that work ok?

[Kashta]

Sure, that'll work. I have those wire mesh strainers that will sit on top of a saucepan, so that's the type I had in mind.

Good luck, Deeley!

[deeleywoman]

oh, god, i don't want to go open the bag >_< lol

[deeleywoman]

so, yeah, after repeatedly swishing the duckweed in a bucket and skimming off the plants, i found no less than four dozen or so snails- easily three dozen babies of varying sizes, plus a few grown snails- dead in the bottom of the bucket. dear god, no wonder it smelled like the eighth circle of hell. i'm guessing that since the duckweed was sitting in a baggie for a couple days before the seller gave up on the first buyer, they were just in the bag for way too long. i feel so bad for them v.v but, the stench is down to a tolerable level, and i'm sure it'll only be a day before the various smells related to a houseful of cats in summertime-weather overpower it lol

thx for the input, y'all =)


(edit: also, crickets are stupid, and can't figure out that duckweed, while appearing to be a solid field of green, is not suitable for walking on. >_<)

[Ramphonic]

Smelllllssssss baaaadddddddd

[Wycco]

(edit: also, crickets are stupid, and can't figure out that duckweed, while appearing to be a solid field of green, is not suitable for walking on. >_<)

We had two ponds in our garden growing up. They would periodically grow a blanket of fairy moss... we would scoop most of it off- but by the end of summer the blanket would be back...

Anyhow- two of our cats playing with each other... one chasing the other. The chased cat jumped onto the fairy moss in an attempt to out run his pursuer- much to his surprise he ended up soaked to the bone.

... one of the best laughs of my life! Looked liked a drowned rat emerging from the pool still covered in bits of fairy moss. (I must locate some fairy moss).