Purchasing Plants from Aquarium Co-Op

[SolidTetra]

Hello, I have been wanting to get into keeping live plants, however most lfs have pond snails in the tanks where they keep the plants. I was curious if anyone here has ordered java fern or amazon sword directly from Aquarium Co-Op and knows wether or not they have snail hitchhikers? Thanks and happy Thanksgiving 🦃

[Daniel]

I have ordered both from the Co-Op and neither one had snail hitchhikers. This doesn't mean there won't be snail hitchhikers. It is almost impossible to keep snail hitchhikers off of plants.

[lefty o]

the only way to ensure you dont get snails with plants is to buy tissue culture ones.  you will more likely than not get snails on plants from the co-op.

[Maggie]

I can tell you one thing - they are packaged much better and in better condition than the other three places I've ordered from, and every plant's identification is clearly marked (great for a newby like me). But since I already had snails, I'm not sure if any were on them. 

[bKillion]

If you really don't want snails, Irene from "Girl Talks Fish" did a YouTube video about plant dips to kill snails and snail eggs, and if you wanted, you could get a 5 gallon plant quarantine tank and a pea puffer because the pea puffer should eat any snails on the plants. This is the link to the video about killing snails on plants. Hope this helps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2bSdZ3ZEmE&t=2s

[Cory]

All of our warehouse tanks intentionally have at least Nerite snails. But most would also have some "pest snails" as the online culture would refer to them. To me, I'd never run a tank without pest snails. It's like living in a house with a dog, every crumb you drop, they'll eat and clean up after you.

[RyanR]

I freaked out the first time I saw pond snails in my aquarium (because my LFS freaked out).  Then I saw how well they team up with trumpet snails and mystery snails to keep my aquarium spotless.  Every once in a while, they get a little out of control and I use the Dennerle Snail Catcher to pick up some and move them to my QT.  Seriously, that thing works awesome - highly recommended.

[David W]

Think of them as bonus snails. They help much more than they hurt. I think they are a big part of transitioning a fish tank into an ecosystem.  
 

Remember most things that seem out of control in an aquarium are a symptom not a disease. Out of control algae or bonus snails are likely due to something being out of balance.

[Ben_RF]

It should be assumed all plants, unless grown via culture, have snails.  If you do not want snails ( a lot of us personally consider them a beneficial part of our tanks and a tool to use to measure our feeding ) , then treating for snails is the way to go.  

One of these videos were already linked. However, @Irene at Girl Talks Fish (which is an amazing youtube channel , and if you are not already should consider subscribing), did two videos that should be helpful in you treating your plants for snails.

On a sidenote, Aquarium Co Op is a great place to get plants.  Only once have I ever had an order come in bad.  The quality of all the other orders have beyond belief great.

Anyhow here are Irene's two videos:

https://youtu.be/Psv6ZMcpjR0

https://youtu.be/s2bSdZ3ZEmE

 

[demicent]

So the snail catcher...I don't want to smoosh them, just move them to another tank unharmed.  Is that what it does?

I had two pieces of spiderwood in my  10 gallon quarantine tank that were covered in a deep layer of white biofilm.  Only took the "pest" snails about a week and a half to clear that off, as well as the brown algae on the glass, water sprite plants and java fern.