New plants not ready to use
 

Hello,
There is a wonderful fish store about 45 miles from my home. I bought a couple of plants (Bacopa and I forgot the other one). Since my tank is finally through cycling, I plan to do a large waterchange this weekend, plant the new plants and see if I can find a Beta I like. My question is, what is the best way to store aquarium plants until you are actually able to plant them in the aquarium? Thanks

bucket of water. leave them outside if you can.

How long before you can plant them? I ask because I stored mine in a bucket for just 24 hours and they melted (turned mushy). They were destroyed and I ended up pitching them.
Later, on another occasion, I had to store some plants for two weeks before I could plant them in my display tank. This time I put them in a five gallon bucket with a heater and a light over it. Pretty extreme but I didn't want to lose them. They did just fine.

Aunt kymmie is correct, plants need light, oxygen, nutrients or they will deteriorate which may be losing a few leaves or melting to mush, depending. Why not just float them in the tank? They will be in the water they will live in.

Great, Thanks!!

I planted my plants during at the beginning of my cycle period and they were kinda shocked, the amazon swords lost a lot of their big leaves but the rest, micro swords, java fern, and pygmy chain sword all thrived.