Table of Contents
Introduction
Planning to buy aquarium plants online? You may have many doubts regarding the arrival, the quality and quantity, and other questions on how to grow and propagate the received plants. Here are some important points to remember.
How to select plants
When you buy aquarium plants online, the first important thing is to decide your exact requirement. Are you looking for a particular plant like anubias glabra or sagittaria subulata, or just want to buy a good-looking plant you came across on the online store? If you belong to the first category, you must only check a few things before buying the plant. What is the price, how are they sold as a pack, pot or as single plants? Since you may know other plant details about its peculiarities, planting conditions, nutrients, CO2, and light requirements, buying the particular plant is quite easy. But if you buy aquarium plants online and you are a beginner or if you don’t know much about the plant, you have to find out more questions to ask yourself and the seller. What kind of plant it is? What are their lighting and CO2 requirements? How long it will take to reach you? Can the plant survive long transit periods before it reaches your home?
Stem plants and Rosette plants
Rosette plants are plants with a circular arrangement of leaves that grow grom a central short stem. The most popular rosette plants for aquariums include the Echinodorus varieties, Sagittaria subulata and Cryptocorynes. These plants can survive longer periods of transit, which means the chances for getting the plants without much damage are very high. Even if you get plants with rotten or damaged leaves, the plant may easily recover and restore its health within a few days. On the other hand, stem plants are plants that have visible stems. Most of these plants are sold simply as stem cuttings, and may not have any roots. After you buy aquarium plants, if you receive stem cuttings, they can be planted in the substrate of the tank and will grow into mature plants within a few days or a couple of weeks.
Aquarium Mosses
When you buy aquarium plants, mosses cannot be missed. Unlike Stem plants and rosette plants, aquarium mosses do not have stems, roots or flowers. They are very small and slow-growing plants, but form attractive dense clumps or mats in the aquarium. The most popular aquarium moss include Java moss, Christmas moss, and weeping moss. Most of these mosses prefer low water temperatures and low to medium light. These mosses can be fixed on rocks or driftwood, or you may simply allow them to grow in whatever way they like to grow. Mosses are costly compared to stem and rosette plants.