I just came back from a shopping excursion, and bought a few plants. I have a Banana plant, Nymphoides aquatica, and several Water Lettuce, or Azolla Caroliniana. I found I could use these in my tank, and am hoping my goldfish won't eat them to death; has anyone else had any experiance with these before?

They are currently in a clean five gal tub, with water from my faucet and their own tank water. I was wondering how long I should keep them there and if I need to sterilize them or just let them be for a few weeks. If sterilization is nessacary, how should I do it? I heard you could place the plant in warm water, but have also heard they can be easily damaged or killed if the temp of the water is too high.

Also, if they survive the goldfish once they are planted, if it becomes nessacary to clean them, do I just take them out and gently rub their leaves under cold tapwater?

My tank is salted a little, and with my water changes it should be all gone but I'm worried about any salt remnants in the water. Will the plants be alright?

Thanks for any help and sorry for all the questions; I'm just really excited about planting and wanted to make sure most of my bases were covered.

I cant answer all your questions, but Ill take a shot at what I can.

they dont generally eat banana plants. mine survived the fish, then the snails got it

Im not sure bout the lettuce.

I always steralise my plants from places I dontknow if i can trust, so what i do is dunk em in a bucket of warm-ish water with a little splash of bleach. then rinse them in faucet water of the same temp for awhile, then finally dunk em in dechlor water in a bucket a couple of times.

yup, your right about cleaning.

the salt shouldnt bother your plants. if its a small bit, theyll be fine.

Thanks for replying. I was mainly concerened about how to sterilize them if I needed to; they've been sitting in the five gal and I'm really anxious to put them in.

Its a relif to hear that the banana plant won't be murdered; I really like it. The water lettuce was cheap; I got five large ones and seven small ones for a dollar, and can always try them again if the fish get them.

Thanks for answering my questions!

Here's a pic of water lettuce:

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

Link only takes you to the hompage; if you're interested, scroll down on list till you get Azolla.

Just scrolled through plants, randomly clicked on one, and found it looks like what I have: it's Salvinia natans.

Are fish interested in Anubias? I like the look of those and will have to search to find some.

I dont think that fish will eat that not 100% sure though

usually your safe with anything with broad leaves, such as the banana plant. things with feathery, small leaves(anacharis, comcomba) are more likely to be eaten, although my fish are good and dont eat em

That's good; I prefer broad leaves to small leaves.

Plants are doing good, although one of my fish hates the banana plant because I put it were she would sleep. There's still room for her, but I don't think she's very happy.

Do you use flouresent lights for your plants or is your tank in a place that gets natural sunlight? Mine gets morning light, and I think I need to by a flouresent bulb though. Is there a certain kind I need?

I have flourescent bulbs, because my tanks get little to no sunlight.

all but one of my planted tanks are just regualr stock lighting, only the 40 has a special plant light.

just get full spectrum flourescent tubes, theyll do you good!

Alright, thanks again for all your help Smack!

anytime! thats what were all here for

I have another question. This afternoon, when I checked on the fish, the water looked kind of cloudy. Is this from the plants? This is the third day that they have been in the goldfish tank, and none look like there rotting, though the Salvinia has a few leaves turning light, one yellow; I've read this is from lack of light. They still look alright, so I don't think they're dieing and polluting the water.

Have you had any problems like this? Tomorrow I'm getting a flouresent, so I'll see if the water conditions perk up once the plants get a little extra light. Thanks again.

it can def be from the plants, i dont know why it is though, it happens to me sometimes when I add in new plants. Just do a good water change, and it should clean up.

just clean up the yellow leaves, cut em off as they turn, and do get the flourescent lights. theyll help tons.

Okay, doing that today as well as possibly getting more plants for this and another tank.

great! keep me updated!!

"Keep me updated!"

Heh, you'd be amazed at how much I can prattle on about things...

Got flouresent lights, two 15 watt bulbs; will 30 watts be too much for a 20? I don't think it will, and I guess I'll just watch and make sure the plants do fine; the water lettuce is hanging around the filter's out flow of water, and my banana plant is on the other side of the tank, but it's getting morning light so it should be fine.

The fish seem to think the water lettuce is food for about five seconds when I move it around, and try to eat it then lose interest. As I said before, when I put the banana plant in, I accidentally made it usurp my orange oranda's spot. Nadia has gave up trying to squeeze through to her used-to-be spot, and yesterday she was trying to rest on the leaves. She kept slipping off and eventually settled around its base for a nap; so far she hasn't tried to eat it, so I'm pretty confident she won't.

Another question: I saw some Brazilian Anacharis at my LFS, and was wondering if that is still safe to feed to my fish. Normally I wouldn't think too much about it, but since I know Amazon Sword is okay for a tank but not Brazillian Sword, I wasn't sure if it would be safe for my fish.

the lighting sounds fine, youll know if its too much if you start getting algae. if that happens, just get more plants!

awww, nothing is cuter then the fish trying to sleep in the plants! they like, wiggle in and fall back out! I loved watching them for the first time

as far as i know, thers only one type of anacharis, and its just fine. if you want it as a plant to look nice however, it may not work, since they eat it up (mine dont, but theyre wierd) It would probably be fine though.

No, actually, I was going to let them have their way with the Anacharis, just for a treat.

All the fish have now learned to co-habitat with the banana plant; I'm so proud of them! One of them has always loved the plant, he keeps tucking himself under or ontop of the roots. He sometimes was sort of an outcast, and I think he found a friend now.

Tank is really bare, so I will definatly get more plants.

ooh, theyll love you for the anacharis! most goldies will happily annhilate it

awww! that is so cute about the banana plant good for your little guy!

good luck with everything

Thanks again, everything has gone great; although the fish are still chasing the water lettuce when it's pushed by the filter current, and haven't quite figured out just because it moves, doesn't mean its food.