G'day people, in the next week or so i'm heading down to lake rotawiti and lake rotaroa ( hrs drive from Nelson) in search of glosstigma, i'v read around the internet and apperently it grows native there(i will soon have a fancy carpet in my tank lol). Anyway my qustion is, what should i do to make sure there is no bugs or parasites in it?

Thanks, Joe

I think you'll have a bigger problem acclimatizing it to a tank temp, but sterilization is easily obtained with potassium permanganate. Just a soak in the purple waters for a couple hours, a good wash under tap water and you should be good to go.

So where can i get potassium permanganate? I'm not much of a scientist. Do you think it will eventually establish it self after 2 weeks maybe? tank temp is about 27 degres. Thanks for the reply : )

Hi

PP can be bought off trademe as condys crystals. Its used to darken horses coats i think. Glosso canbe slowly acclimatised to tank conditions, but alot of people just chuck it straight in and it takes off....

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Equestr ... 075805.htm

Would this be what i need? Also my dad just said we could go today, so if i got the plants to day they would have to wait about 3-4 days for the Potassium Permanganate to arrive inthe mail, would they be ok waiting in the bucket? Also how much Potassium Permanganate should i use?

Thanks for the replys people

Thats the one mate. They would be sweet in a bucket for a few days yea. So you going from nelson to lake rotorua? Be cheaper to just buy glosso off someone man.....

Hey matey, yep you could leave it in the sunniest spot possible in a bucket, with these summer temps that would help acclimatise it to your tank too. Mine was wild and I threw it straight in. It went from 20cm long to:

Mix the PP until it's light purple...soak for 10mins then rinse. Blue's on to it

When you put it in watch the fish they find interesting things come out of it to nibble on, not sure what that is exactly but they seem to like it.

maybe, but i will get enuff to make a decent size carpet lol in both my tanks (if it is actually there) plus it is something to do, very nice lake down there. I have to get ready to go now , and will probably buy that potassium permanganate. Will reply later to day with my findings.

Joe

G'day people, in the next week or so i'm heading down to lake rotawiti and lake rotaroa ( hrs drive from Nelson)

Evil, that's not Rotorua. It's at least an hours swim before you even get to the north island

Oh, i thought he made spelling mistakes and meant lake rotorua and rotoiti....

LOL!

hehe yea I was thinking that as well. There's probably glosso in those lakes too?

There should be, it gets pretty warm around that area. If it was me, I wouldn't worry about quarantining the plants, but always pays to be safe.

yeah its been so hot down here the last couple of days!

mrblueram dont forget the pics of what you get!

I got a kg of PP off TradeMe (Condys Crystals) and have plenty to spare. Can even courier it to you if you want to hurry things up a bit.

Good to see all the interest,

Just got back about 20minutes ago, i found it growing where the lake mets the river not to much of it tho, ended up just pulling it apart from the mud and oxygen wed ( to get the marjortity of them i fell in a bout 2 feet of mud : ) all good fun. The sandflies were biger than the average and we forgot repelent! I ended up with about a large handful. Here is 2 plants i took just to make sure i got the right thing? I'm not at home atm, but will get a pic of all of them and post it asap, those 2 were about 1hr out of water there, the others are in a bucket with water

That would be great BlueandKim, i will pay you for them and post.

No account details needed , happy to help. PP should be there Tuesday, thanks for the address and please remember to join a local club and support the FNZAS

If it turns to custard I have some growing emersed in a glass house so it is used to the heat. You can have enough to get started for the cost of fastpost ($4.30) Pm me if you want some. It is hard to plant so you are probably best to plant a bit and let it spread. It needs strong light.

Thank you very much BlueandKim, there are so many nice people on here! Thanks for the offer alanmin4304 i will see how the stuff i got from the lake goes first. Should i separate the runners as it would make planting them a lot easier? Also how should i go about planting them into the substrate? I got them from lake rotaroa if anyone in the area wants to find them. Cheers, Joe

Very carefully and with great patience. Breaking them into shortish chains will make them easier to plant. You realy need to let them spread.