PetSmart "aquarium" plants

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Kuhlifan

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Mar 28, 2007
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I'm looking for a few plants to put in the new setup I'm workiing on. I stopped by Petsmart and got the names of all their plants so I could research them. It seems that almost all of them don't belong in an aquarium.

They have: Kyoto grass, anubias, peacock fern, aqua fern, umbrella plant, white ribbon, amazon sword and gold ribbon. I know anubias and amazon sword can live in the water, and I've read that aqua fern could as well, but the rest aren't aquatic at all.

So, anyone had any experience with aqua fern? Of the three, it and anubias look like the most interesting.
 

jackiomy

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Jul 6, 2008
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I have had really good luck with Petsmart swords. They grow really well in fairly low light.
 

rsanz

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Aug 22, 2006
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"Aqua fern" could be anything. That's like calling a rosebush a "land plant".

Is it Malayan Aqua Fern in particular? You could try it if you really wanted to, but if it rots it'll be a huge mess in your tank.
 

coach_z

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Jan 12, 2009
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yea i just got two plants from there yesterday, an anubias and an aqua fern.

plantgeek.com is telling me that an aqua fern is not aquatic and will slowly rot/die in your aquarium...i am going to be returning it tonight unless i find some different information on the packaging when i get home.
 

James0816

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Feb 14, 2007
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I know...I hate them little tubes. The Peacock Fern is a very nice looking plant. But alas....non aquatic. I did get one just for the "halibut" but had to remove it once it started turning.
 

Kuhlifan

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Mar 28, 2007
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That's the thing, there's the aqua fern and the peacock fern. And being from you know where, who knows what's actually in it.
 

Winged

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Jan 11, 2009
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I work at a Petsmart, one of the ones that was around before they started carrying plants in the little tube containers. So we had a nice plant tank, with a few non-aquatic plants (like mondo grass), but mostly true aquatic plants (ludwiga, java fern, wisteria, anubias, scarlet temple, and some others). But, a few weeks ago, we got a crack in our tank. It wasn't on any of the exterior walls, but where an interior wall met an exterior one. Almost overnight, the crack went from being a couple inches long to five inches.

Needless to say, we got rid of it, and now are getting the tubes. I went in Saturday morning after we got our fish to look at our new plants. I started looking at all the tubes and reading the names: Peacock fern, anubias, a Dracaena species, Kyoto grass. I was really irritated. I had really been looking forward to some new plants, but they are all non-aquatic plants. On the bright side, though, new plants for my water dragon's vivarium.

(And I'm evil towards Petsmart...I tell customers the truth. "That mondo grass, so not a real aquatic plant. It'll die." Muwhahaha.)
 

vampie

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Oct 25, 2006
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Both the Aqua Fern and the Peacock Fern are non-aquatic. Regardless of which store sells them, all the tubes come from the same company. I compiled a list of them several years ago, but I can't seem to find it anymore.
 

Kuhlifan

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Mar 28, 2007
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Yeah, my local Petsmart had an awesome live plant aquarium setup...and then disassembled it and shipped it off to make room for the tubes.

There's a jacks aquarium nearby though, so I can still get some live plants that are actually in water.
 

zak15

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Oct 15, 2007
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The aqua fern might be java fern. I got one of the tubes that said aqua fern and it turned out to be java fern, as long as the little name under the name "aqua fern" says "microsorum pteropus" it is a java fern. Most of the anubias and amazon (not argentina) swords are really big actually and look healthy from what I've seen at my PetSmart. All the others I would stay away from.
 
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