Got suckered in.....PetSmart

James0816

AC Members
Feb 14, 2007
3,413
3
38
Impulse buy...need to avoid them. DOH!

Was looking at the TopFin plants and thought I would try and get a different variety and got a nice looking Peacock Fern. After researching, it appears that this is not an aquatic plant.

Now why in the world do they sell these plants for aquariums if they are not aquatic. Dang that makes me mad. It looks good in the tank for now but knowing that it is going to die out is terrible.

Should I just pull it out and put it in pot like a regular plant?

Anyway of knowing what is truely aquatic of what they sell? Don't want to make the same mistake twice.

Thx
 
For some reason Petsmart and petco do this welcome to the club I think you will find that a lot of us have fallen for this.

The 1 petsmart that still has a plant tank the Fish manager makes sure the tags that come with the potted plants stay in the pots and you can read on it if its aquarium plant she has also told me that she orders only aquarium plants but corporate sometimes forces the terrarium plants on her.

But untill you learn more about plants you just have to write down the new and research it at home or if they happen to have a book you can also look in a copy of aquarium hobbiest and maybe lucky
 
draal is right...petco/walmart/petsmart/corp store USUALLY sell nothing BUT bog plants because they look nice..theres a number of bog plants that I would kill to have in my tank if they would live
 
I fell for non-aquatics as well when i started with plants. They can be used in terrariums or you could yank them and put them as a houseplant. Some of htem will last longer than others in your tank. Sorry about your misfortune.
 
If you're lucky, you can do what I read about someone else doing w/ Mondo grass (another common, non-aquatic found in tanks) - keep it in a pot (or just uproot it), and once every couple of weeks, pull it for a few hours, letting it get some air. That is all Mondo grass needs - the person who posted says his has been around for a long time. Or go the bamboo growers' way - try to find a spot in the tank near the top for it (tied to a piece of driftwood or something) so that is can have some emersed leaves.
 
I might try the taking it out every so often for a spell until I figure out really what to do with it. Is there a list some where that would say whether it is truely aquatic or bog? I can not find any information for Top Fin so can't do any further research on these plants.
 
I called PetSmart and the lady was nice enough to provide me a list of what plants they currently have. (spelling may be off)

In the tubes:
wisteria
umbrella plant
white ribbon
peacock fern
kyoto grass
gold ribbon
argentine sword
aquatic fern (sounds generic to me)
amazon fern

In a tank:
green mondo grass
anacharis
 
I called PetSmart and the lady was nice enough to provide me a list of what plants they currently have. (spelling may be off)

In the tubes:
wisteria
umbrella plant
white ribbon
peacock fern
kyoto grass
gold ribbon
argentine sword
aquatic fern (sounds generic to me)
amazon fern

In a tank:
green mondo grass
anacharis

No Latin names? Very bad service with plants. Common names can mean anything.
 
AquariaCentral.com