Picked up a mass of plants from a local pond today

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Gambusia

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Nov 26, 2003
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What should I do to disinfect them or should I dump them in with my tadpoles?

Thanks
 

anonapersona

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Mar 7, 2003
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Pp

I'd soak in a vat of potasium permanganate (from Sears Hardware in water softener dept, $8), I once added plants from a ditch to my pond and got a huge outbreak of anchor worms on my koi and goldfish. $30 worth of medication later, I really wished I'd sterilized the plants.
 

Darkblade48

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Argh! You guys can get Potassium Permanganate down in the states at Sears, while up here in Canada, I have no source of it at all!

I've been looking all over, and when I went to Sears and asked, the salesperson insisted that Potassium chloride was what I was looking for (But I had told him that it wasn't for a water softener! :huh: )

Back on topic, you can also use an Alum dip (more like a bath) or a bleach (!!!) dip. With the bleach dip though, I'd be extremely careful with the kind of plants you dip in (don't try it on finely leafed plants i.e. Cabomba)
 

anonapersona

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bleach is hard on plants! I've hurt a lot of plants that way. Try alum. Also, see Aquabotanic library for tips on disinfecting plants.
 
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