Bringing home new plants to a dry tank....

JDM

How long can I keep plants without actually planting them? Not that just setting them in water in some cases is "plating".

I would suppose that I could just plunk them into a basin deep enough to cover them, add a bit of fertilizer and be good for a week. Any problem with that assumption?

Reason is the aquarium setup may end up being delayed longer than a day or two due to some equipment taking a week to be delivered. This is to be able to take early advantage of buying plants on sale at a Boxing Day sale.

Perhaps I could just use that stained pot...

Jeff.

redchigh

Plants will live for a while with nothing but water and light.
Keep the temp reasonable (70s, high 60's). I've observed that:

Plants can go without water and light for 2 days (wrapped in a damp paper towel and placed in a ziplock bag) with no ill affects
Plants can go up to a week without light (2-3 days without any ill effects, but can survive and recover from a week)

Most plants can survive almost indefinately "floating"- swords, stem plants, saggitaria, etc

"sensitive" stem plants, some aponogetons, and most crypts do poorly being held in such a way though..

JDM

Sounds reasonable.

What about fish... travelling concern, not dry tank. I see people leaving the shop with the bagged fish. How long can a fish be left in the bag before it might be a concern for the health of the fish? I would suppose that it depends upon the fish type.

We're about an hour out of town, so travel time and time to equalize the water temperature. Worst case could be two hours, I would think that most should be OK with that timeline.

Jeff.

redchigh

When you bring fish home, open the bag and float it open. Oxygen would be my only concern.

Jakiebabie

2 hours is not a problem if there is a reasonable amount of water and air in the bag. Obviously we should do our best to get home and acclimate them as fast as possible. By opening the bag and trickling in some Tank water every 5 minutes you acclimate them faster equalizing the temperatures and adjusting the new fish to your water's PH.
How do people ship fish? I know some go by mail... that is longer than a few hours... I've not experienced that.
Just tell the store when you purchase fish that you have a long travel ahead of you.

DKRST

I'd be more concerned with temperature shifts during transport, given your location and the time of year! Just bring along a cooler to place the bagged fish in.

Shipped fish, historically, were plastic-bagged with pure oxygen, a good amount of water, and then shipped in styfoam coolers or boxes. Chemicals may be used to calm the fish, reduce stress, or enhance oxygen uptake. They are still often shipped this way. Now-a-days though, many fish ship in special bags that are gas-permeable, and allow oxygen and CO2 to penetrate. These special bags (Kordon brand being one of the popular brands) allow oxygen to diffuse (move) into the bag and CO2 to leave the bag. This allows a smaller volume of water to be used, reducing shipping weights, and keeps the critical gases in the water in good shape. These are the bags many hobbyists use to ship fish. Depending on the fish and the size of the fish, they can survive a week in a Kordon bag, no problems!

The answer to how long can a fish make it in a normal fish-store bag? It depends on the fish size (bigger is not good in this case), the amount of water in the bag (more is better), and the type of fish (fish from low-oxygen environments like catfish are usually more tolerant, a large active red-tailed shark or other very active fish less so).

As mentioned, two hours shouldn't be an issue, but watch the temperature!

JDM

Thanks, sounds like no major issues. The car is warm so the cold issue is only while walking to and from.

Jeff.

Byron

Temperature is critical. I bought myself a cooler, and this is well worth it. Even a slight chill can bring on ich--or worse.

My usual time from store to home is 1-2 hours, but if longer say 2-3 hours I always tell the store person this. They will ensure sufficient oxygen is pumped into the bag, then it goes into my cooler and is closed.

This also helps with another important issue, light; fish will be far less nervous and stressed in darkness, so never use an opaque bag, and never open it during transit to "see" the fish. Leave them in the dark. The cooler is ideal for this too.

Just to illustrate what is possible, when I moved I bagged up my fish and boxed them. What should have been a few hours turned into more than 10 hours. In spite of this, out of some 200 fish I only lost 12. But, I would never knowingly subject fish to this, as many of the others were obviously weakened and I was just lucky that I got the tank full of water, dumped the plants in floating, and the fish.

Byron.

JDM

Oh, they are always in clear bags. I have a cooler that is the right size so I'll just bring it along.

Thanks.

Jeff
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Byron

The plastic bags stores use are clear, but these have to go into a dark bag or container; this was what I was meaning. But the cooler solves this.