Wild collected plants as disease vectors?

[clovenpine]

I live in central Florida where a lot of aquatic and floating plants grow wild. I've often been tempted to grab some valisneria, bacopa, anacharis, or water lettuce, but is that safe?

What are the dangers of adding wild-collected plants into home aquariums? As silly as it sounds, I'm running very low on duckweed. There's a drainage pond in my neighborhood that's lousy with the stuff, but could it possibly carry parasites or diseased fry/eggs that could infect my goldfish? Would a salt-water rinse help make wild-collected plants safer?

I'm planning to set up a kiddie pool to cultivate duckweed and mosquito larvae for them, but that will take a while. What veggie matter can I give them in the meantime?

[gardenman]

Parasites typically need a host and that host is usually a fish, not a plant. Is it possible one was resting on a plant that you brought in? Sure. Is it likely? Probably not. Parasite eggs tend to drop to the substrate and linger there, so they're not in the plants. Duckweed tends to have fairly minimal roots, so I wouldn't be terribly concerned about contaminated fish eggs on it. Things like water hyacinths with large bushy roots are more attractive to egg layers. If you're moving those or water lettuce, or similar plants with long bushy roots, then I'd be more worried about bringing in eggs. Duckweed isn't as common a place for eggs to be laid. Could there be an issue? Sure. There can always be an issue. Is it likely? Probably not. Many of the fish we buy in stores are wild-caught and most have had little to no treatment before we get them and by and large things work out okay.

[lefty o]

most likely to bring in snails with them. anything is a risk, you can buy from the LFS and bring in their problems.

[TheSwissAquarist]

If you can, I would quarantine plants plants for about a week if you're really paranoid.

[Pepere]

Submerging plants collected in carbonated water for12 hours in the dark and then oxygenated water in light for an hour or so(reverse respiration) would go a long way to eliminating any eggs, parasites, snails, slugs worms etc… and algae…

 

I do this now with all plants I get from any source.

 

 

[Guppysnail]

Here is the Reverse Respiration thread for disinfecting plants safely without damaging them. 

 

Fyi Saltwater does a good bit of damage if not outright kills some plants. 

[lefty o]

On 9/17/2022 at 11:26 AM, Guppysnail said:

Here is the Reverse Respiration thread for disinfecting plants safely without damaging them. 

 

Fyi Saltwater does a good bit of damage if not outright kills some plants. 

some salt wont hurt most plants, but enough salt to actually kill off parasites will do a number on most plants.

[clovenpine]

On 9/17/2022 at 9:40 AM, gardenman said:

Parasites typically need a host and that host is usually a fish, not a plant. Is it possible one was resting on a plant that you brought in? Sure. Is it likely? Probably not. Parasite eggs tend to drop to the substrate and linger there, so they're not in the plants. Duckweed tends to have fairly minimal roots, so I wouldn't be terribly concerned about contaminated fish eggs on it. Things like water hyacinths with large bushy roots are more attractive to egg layers. If you're moving those or water lettuce, or similar plants with long bushy roots, then I'd be more worried about bringing in eggs. Duckweed isn't as common a place for eggs to be laid. Could there be an issue? Sure. There can always be an issue. Is it likely? Probably not. Many of the fish we buy in stores are wild-caught and most have had little to no treatment before we get them and by and large things work out okay.

Thank you for the common-sense check! Honestly, I wouldn't think twice about adding wild plants to one of my community tanks where I can observe the fish and medicate for illness. This is my first real foray into keeping large fish in ponds,and I'm nervous because I'm not sure I'd be able to identify a problem in time. It sounds like duckweed will be a safe bet, especially given the huge volume of rain we've had in the past few weeks.

Thank you!!

On 9/17/2022 at 10:46 AM, lefty o said:

most likely to bring in snails with them. anything is a risk, you can buy from the LFS and bring in their problems.

I have no problem with snails, so that's great news. Thanks!

[clovenpine]

On 9/17/2022 at 12:26 PM, Guppysnail said:

Here is the Reverse Respiration thread for disinfecting plants safely without damaging them. 

 

Fyi Saltwater does a good bit of damage if not outright kills some plants. 

I can't tell you how excited I am to see this! I'm definitely going to participate in this "citizen science project," and it just so happens seltzer is BOGO at my regular grocery store this week! Thanks for the link!