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Tropica & Pets at Home

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I’ve been to two P@H near me and both had a poor selection and most of the plants has completely dried out so had obviously been sitting for a while. The buces were in good condition and I picked one up for £4 which isn’t bad. I actually really like this idea of plant packing and selection as long as your recycle the plastic packing.


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Around 90% of the plants in my Edge are from the Tropica pre packaged display at one or other of my local p@h.

I've found that in general they last quite well in between purchase and planting, although, as others have noted, it is a bit hit and miss with the quality and plant size.

That said...they all settled in really nicely, and I had hardly any melting...which is always nice. 🙂
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I got burned by the little pots on the display at my local PAH. The pot looked to have all green plants in it. So I bought it. Only to find a complete tangle of plant stems of which only the top and bottom were green (the visible bits.)
The rest was grey. Some of the green bits have grown a little, but the majority was dead. Very disappointing.
At the very least, there should be a sell by date clearly marked on the pack.

I won't be throwing good money after bad. Will get my plants from a more traditional method in future.
 
I got some great eleocharis 12Grows from P@H, it was actually the first time i have ever been in one, i tried my best not to look at the livestock to be fair, the plant selection was limited but healthy.
 
Typically after months of putting it off I went it to get three buce for £11 to find the buce they have had in plenty supply were gone.

I did end up picking up two Bacopa Carolina and a Hygrophila Siamensis mini pots for £6. They almost filled the pack and had plenty of healthy stems.

I guess if you can get them in decent condition soon after delivery you can't argue with the price.
 
Hmm. Are Tropica plant packages a relatively new thing in the UK? Granted few LFS here stock the 1-2 grow or blister packaged plants but I've been ordering mine online for a couple of years already and they have certainly been around longer than that. I prefer the 1-2 grow pots and the blisters over the ones in "LFS" tanks as these are almost always in good condition and disease free as opposed to the algae filled things they call plants in the pet shops we have here. We don't have any dedicated fish stores here so few pet stores bother maintaining their aquatic plants. Plus there are nearly always a ton of plantlets in a single 1-2 grow pot which is great!

There are a few exceptions like Hygrophila Pinnatifida as there are usually just a few small plantlets even in a 1-2 grow pot but for anything really weedy (i.e. rotalas or carpeting plants) you get tons of them as long as you have patience to grow them out.

Generally speaking I find that weedier plants work better as tissue culture where as crypts and the like work better as regular pots. I got some Hortilab tissue culture crypts and while they are awesome once they get going they also required a *lot* time and CO2 to start growing at all. Hortilab has a better selection of mosses than Tropica though.

That being said I wish Tropica would expand their buce selection. It's almost impossible to get any buces here other than the two Tropica offers. I had to order a few expensive ones from Russia and they didn't take the journey well.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,I would imagine that all retailers would like to go down that route it is lower maintenance, frees up floor space, makes an impulse purchase more likely etc.
The main problem would be that if they don't sell then they won't go back to an alternative plant display, they will just stop selling plants.
cheers Darrel
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This is the sad state of the Tropica stand today, most of the plants are a bit ropey and past their sell by date; looks as though Darrel may have been right...
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As opposed to when it was brand new - June 2017...
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After my first tank suffered from my inexperienced eye for feeding and some rogue snails from tgm's 'value' range, I rescaped with only in vitro plants. Snail free tanks made such a difference to my enjoyment of the hobby.

Since I still have a propensity for over feeding, I am reluctant to purchase anything that risks snails. Does anyone know if the blister packs reduce snail risk to the same level as in vitro? I.e. zero risk!
 
The pots in blister packs are taken out from the same general nursery conditions as the standard plants in pots - sometimes they are fantastic, other times quite the opposite ... I suspect they leave Tropica in decent nick, but shipping seems to adversely affect anything soft leafed - Echinodorus, Microsorum, Anubias, Lilaeopsis generally do fine, Cryptocoryne hit & miss

In vitro is the only snail, algae free plant presentation (also completely shrimp safe)
I think Tropica 1-2-Grow are pretty impressive

Of course the retail shop also has come responsibility to communicate with Tropica when plants arrive in poor condition - most of my local just toss whatever on the shelf, ignoring plant condition

I've not been much impressed with H-lab, while they offer many species in-vitro, many do poorly or grow very slowly or are full of mold (while the tops are green, the healthy stem is barely a cm long)
 
alto said:
The pots in blister packs are taken out from the same general nursery conditions as the standard plants in pots..

In vitro is the only snail, algae free plant presentation (also completely shrimp safe)
I think Tropica 1-2-Grow are pretty impressive
Click to expand...

Aye, that's what I thought, thanks for confirming. I will avoid.

I have also been very pleased with Tropical 1-2 grow.

I've also has success with aquasabi's unbranded in vitros. Not sure who the source of these are, but you get a lot of healthy plantlets - maybe four times what yiu get from tropica for about double the price. I usually end up having to guiltily chuck some in the bin, thinking I should be a bit more creative and experiment with emmersed.
 
alto said:
In vitro is the only snail, algae free plant presentation
Click to expand...

Interested in this:
A)I have seen what I believe to have been algae on he pots of blister packed plants
B)why would they not be snail free if grown emergent and all Rockwool etc removed?
 
You’re confusing the “blister packs” with tissue culture which are the only sterile culture plants available - at least they should be sterile UNLESS contaminated 🙂
 
My local Pets at home( Loughborough) stock tropica plants.I have noticed that some plants are dead or on the verge of giving up. I think i will buy online!
 
Matt @ ScapeEasy said:
B)why would they not be snail free if grown emergent and all Rockwool etc removed?
Click to expand...

I suspect snail contamination occurs in dealer tanks
(I’m always less keen on purchasing plants from display tanks with fish and substrate, while it may look nice, now plants are a source of various potential fish diseases, snails etc)
 
As this thread still seems to be live, Pets At Home have the 1-2 Grow pots on offer at the minute, buy one get one half price. As my local Pets At Home had no moss in their Tropica display, I ordered on line and collected from the store this morning.
 
Sorry all but that's not what I was getting at...

The blister packs contain potted plants (I don't mean the 1-2 grow pots) and they are not in dealers tanks as they are in the blister packs.

Admittedly their poor condition (due to age I suspect) may be why I think I'm seeing algae, but what I'm really interested in here is why they would not be snail free.

For example. They will be grown emersed in the greenhouse at tropica, they will have the pots and mineral wool in nutrient rich water. This may contain snails, but as the pot and mineral wool is removed before planting, and the plant never goes underwater/in a dealer tank, I guess the ultimate question is... would pest snails leave the waters surface to lay eggs on the plants themselves which can then survive the time is takes to get into our tanks?... hope that makes sense...?
 
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