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I was just at the Petco yesterday and they were putting out something new that I have never seen sold before. There were like 10 different varieties on aquatic plants sold in little individually packaged plastic tubes and they were planted in a nutrient gel. They all looked really healthy (unlike most live plants I see at the pet stores), and they were some of the less common species...cost was $3-4 I think. I'm thinking of trying these when I'm ready to plant my tank and was wondering if anyone else had seen/tried them. I made the mistake of researching and buying live plants online and having them shipped for mucho bucks, and they all died! My most successful and beautiful plants have been from Walmart bulbs and baby java ferns harvested from my mother plant (that was really cheap too!)

FYI, I found a great deal at the Petco too. A huge piece of sinking Malaysian driftwood for only $9! It was mixed in with the reptile driftwood. I could never find the stuff locally and have bought alot of it online. Bad part about getting it online is that the size REALLY varies. I once got a huge piece and was so thrilled that I ordered more of the same size and it was about a fifth of the width and was nothing more than a really expensive twig

I've never heard of it..Next time I go over to Petco I'll take a look around..What kind of plants are there?

i never saw them bfore. Sounds intresting though. i will make a visit to mine on the weekend to look for them and maybee buy one.

I believe AZOO sells this stuff. I don't think it's meant for plants, but substrate in general. It comes in like a gel rock like form and than when you add water it slowly melts like a liquid, covering the surface.

EDIT2: i just looked around on the web for information about this stuff and then found the english version of azoo *huff* AZOO MAGIC SEED


EDIT: Did myself some research, and AZOO does sell a gel substrate. Like i said, it starts of like pebbles, and when you add water, it turns into gel. The stuff is called AZOO MAGIC SEED. The site is in Chinese, but you probably can't read it. I had my mom read it for me, because i don't speak chinese, and she said it absorbs water, then turns into a gel, and the volume of the water doesn't change after you put in the rock, that will eventually turn into gel. Also something about the gel not leeching into the water. She's not very good at english, so she didn't know quite how to word it


[span class="edited"][Edited by seedkiros 2004-06-30 13:45][/span]

[span class="edited"][Edited by seedkiros 2004-06-30 13:50][/span]

I have seen the gel substance used with plants before. We used it as a potting soil additive. It comes as crystals and absorbs lots of water, puffing up into a gel, and then slowly releases the water on an "as needed" basis. I had just never seen it used with individually packaged aquatic plants like that before. It seems like a really clever idea, if it works. I wondered how long the plants would survive in something like that....like what would the shelf life be. I know most aquatic plants can live awhile outside water as long as they are moist, but wouldn't you think that one of these things would kill them pretty quickly:lack of light, drying out, some type of mold or fungus growing inside the tube, or lack of nutrients. Hmmm..I may have to go back in a few days to get some just for the sake of experimentation even though my tank isn't ready.

I've seen them and even bought some, they are good plants, the only problem is that not all of them are real Aquatic Plants, so just check the profile before you buy i got some java fern and an aquatic fern that are really nice, but i got other 2 that where dragon plants and a regular fern that of course it died.

They also have dwarf sagitaria, and amazonian swords, that grow well.

Did you keep them in the gel falstaf?

nope you take them out of the gel, rinse them well in tap watter and then plant them in the tank

[span class="edited"][Edited by Falstaf 2004-07-02 01:37][/span]

i have seen them too some of their plants got weird names. i did recognize a few though. i havent tried them, because i am still struggling with lighting issues, and when i am done, i'll prob get a amazon sword. these things look VERY lush and green then first time i saw them, however, last time i checked they started to turn yellow and the leaves are dried, so maybe you should buy the fresh ones.

petco's live plants kinda suck, i visited 3 of them, 1 of them doesnt even have lights for them, another one has gigantic snail egg chunks in them, and the last one was just full of dying plants. i think petsmart sometimes have better stuff, depends on the stores, and wal-mart plants are pretty good too, except they put the plants and fish in the same tank, so some are eaten or dug out of the pot.

So, I was intrigued and stopped by at Petco so I could look at these plants. I, of course, didn't come prepared, so I was scribbling down plant names on the back of a receipt (which had those stupid printed coupon-stuff on it). Pardon for the misspellings I'm going to make, because I can't read my own scrawlings...

I've only actually found information on the first four of these plants, probably due to my horrid misspellings. I think some of these names aren't terribly accurate in the first place, though. These are the plants I saw, "scientific" names only:

Hygrophila difformis (common name = wisteria)
microsorum pteropus (common name = java fern)
ophiopogon japonicus (terrarium plant)
spathiphyllum wallissi (terrarium plant)

aglaonema simplex
chlorophytum bichetti
cordylim species "red edge"
dacaena sanderseum (was marked gold pearl or something like that)
dacaena variegatus (marked white stripe or some such thing)
echinodorus amazon
echinodorus argentinensis
selaqinella wilbenowii
trichomanes javanicem

Two of four that I could identify were terrarium plants. Interesting. Also, the echinodorus are some kind of sword plant, I think, but I'm not exactly a plant expert, so I'll leave identification up to the smart people.

Well, if I had taken down the "common" names I might be more helpful. On the other hand, I was running out of room as it was on my lil bank drive-thru receipt. Thought this might help out a bit. *shrugs*

They look interesting, but I'd definitely try to get in on the day they get their orders, as these plants were looking a bit peeked.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

That was so great of you Kitten to get all this info! thanks, ehis way people can be prepared and won't buy plants that will only live for 3 weeks in their tanks.

This are the ones i found so far, the ones with the "?" i couldn't find anywhere!

chlorophytum bichetti = Clorophytum Laxum "Bichetii= Pongol Swordplant not an aquatic plant
dacaena sanderseum (was marked gold pearl or something like that) = Dracaena Sanderiana not an aquatic plant
echinodorus amazon = Echinodorus Amazonicus = Amazon Swordplant [font color="#000080"]Aquatic plant[/font]
echinodorus argentinensis = ? The closer i could find and that is geographically (*sp.) is Echinodorus Uruguayensis = Urugay Amazon Swordplant
selaqinella wilbenowii = ?
trichomanes javanicem = ?

[span class="edited"][Edited by Falstaf 2004-07-06 23:10][/span]

Being curious and all that (and irritated that I couldn't read my own writing), I'll go back - properly prepared - and see if I can get the correct spellings and the "common" names they're calling these plants.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Yay for correct spellings and the "common names" that are on these packages. Red is NONaquatic, blue is AQUATIC. The names in quotes are what was on the package, parentheses indicate common name, *real* scientific name or note.

[font color="#C00000"]Aglaonema Simplex "Borneo Sword" (Borneo Sword, Malayan Sword)[/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Chlorophytum Bichetti "Mongol Sword" (Clorophytum Laxum "Bichetii = Pongol Swordplant, Spider Plant) [/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Cordyline species "red edge" (Terrarium)[/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Dracaena Sanderiana "White Ribbon" (Sandy Dracaena, Terrarium)[/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Dracaena Variegatus "Gold Ribbon" (Variegated Dracaena)[/font]

[font color="#000080"]Echinodorus Amazonicus "Amazon Sword"[/font]

[font color="#000080"]Echinodorus Argentinensis "Argentine Sword"[/font]

[font color="#000080"]Hygrophila difformis "Wisteria" [/font]

[font color="#000080"]Microsorum Pteropus "Tropica Fern" (commonly Java Fern, scientific name misspelled on package)[/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Ophiopogon Japonica "Mondo Grass" (terrarium)[/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Selaginella Wilbenowii "Peacock Fern"[/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Spathiphyllum wallisii "Umbrella Plant" (Peace Lily)[/font]

[font color="#C00000"]Trichomanes Javanicum "Aqua Fern"[/font]

Feel free to correct me, I had a hard time finding information on some of these plants. I took a bunch of my information from [link=http://www.pets-warehouse.com/plant-comps.htm ]http://www.pets-warehouse.com/plant-comps.htm [/link] which is a list of unsuitable aquarium plants. Anyway, fair warning to any of you who were contemplating these gel-packed plants. And drat it... I just may have to create a water garden to house some of these plants... some of the terrarium plants were really nice! Sigh.

Edit: 'Cause I still can't spell... even with the correct spelling in front of me!
And again, for coding issues.

[span class="edited"][Edited by kitten 2004-07-07 19:56][/span]

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Thanks so much for making the list. I haven't been able to get back to the store recently. I knew some of them weren't really aquatic plants like the Dracaena ones, but I didn't realize that most of them weren't really aquatic. The ones that I saw that I knew were aquatic for sure were the same ones that you listed. I thought the others were aquatic too and I just never heard of them. Oh, well. I may try them some if they look healthier than the plants in the tanks.