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Do plants transmit fish diseases?

Greengirl

Members
I want to sterilize the fish tank that had the strange death. It has some beautiful water Lily plants and anubias. If I sterilize the tank all of the plants will die. Can I remove the plants to another tank without worrying about transmitting what might have killed my old fish to a new tank with new fish? Or are the plants like pathogen carriers and should just be sacrificed?
 

Thai

Members
If you're worried do a salt water dip on the plants to kill any fw bugs that may carry over but I wouldn't be worried
 

ddavila06

Members
or a bleach dip. chances are that it can carry somehing to the other aquarium... worse case scenario, the lilly will melt. the anubia is tough enough though, imo
 

jonclark96

Past CCA President
If you are worried about it, I wouldn't chance it. If you think that you are transferring disease with your net, a plant wouldn't be any different.
 

verbal

CCA Members
The anubias you could give it a bleach dip and grow it emersed(out of water with high humidity) for a while.
 

Becca

Members
A bleach dip worked for me - actually a bleach dip and a round of quick cure, followed by a round of poly guard.

The plants weren't happy, but they recovered.
 

Frank Cowherd

Global Moderators
Staff member
Plants are more likely carriers of parasites and snails that might carry disease. Or the parasites might be the fish problem you encountered.

Chlorine bleach dips can get rid of most of these parasites and you can pick off snails but snail eggs might survive. Timing is critical to bleach dips. Low concentration of the bleach will help the plants survive but then you need to do the dip for an extended time. High concentration of bleach will kill the parasites and snails quickly in a short time but probabl also affect the plants. Find out recommended concentrations and times from some group like GWAPA.

I like to use alum, the pickling agent. It is aluminum sulfate and is available in stores for pickling vegetables. So it is safe for humans to consume in small quantities. Use 1 to 3 tablespoon in a gallon of water. Soak the plants in this mix for about an hour, rinse and use the plants. This can be used on plants collected from local ponds and rivers. Use a microscope to look at the stuff that falls of the plants to the bottom of the bucket.

A longer time of a day or two is needed to kill snail eggs with the alum mixture since the eggs must hatch to kill the snails. Probably doing a one hour dip every day for three or four days in a row would be just as effective and less harsh on the plants. Just keep the plants in regular water in a bucket between dips and clean the bucket each time.
 
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