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What plants would you like to see in a LFS ?

5K views 68 replies 16 participants last post by  redpaulhus 
#1 ·
Hi,
I've been rearranging the plants in our "plant table tanks" (80g low wide tanks) and I think I have room now to bring in another nice plant order.
We generally carry a good assortment of "bread-and-butter" plants -- various crypts, bacopa, water sprite, dwarf lilies, swords, sag, val, and apons, along with various "potted" plants and of course anubias, java fern, java moss and pellia. I also try to bring in some "harder" plants - HC, etc

And I'm generally confidant matching the plants we carry with the skills, lighting, substrate etc of our customers -- we don't recommend high light plants that crave CO2 to customers who just bought a 10g kit from Wallyworld. :biggrin:

So - all that being said - I'm looking to see what plants make you go
:bounce:"eeee! roadtrip !!!" :bounce:.
Right now we're buying from a typical plant wholesaler, who source their plants from Florida Aquatic.
so this is a pretty good "master list" of what we can get:
http://floridaaquatic.com/aquarium_plants_1.html

( I know I can't get some of the rare plants that I see traded on the forums. Also, some of the plants are seasonal - for example I order red barclaya whenever it is available but its not available as often as I'd like)
 
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#12 ·
All of our huge anubias sold 2 weekends ago. I think there's still one large-but-not-huge piece left. Might be one large fern clump, I'll have to check.
java moss and subwassertang (or pellia -- jury is out on which we have) - we have a moderate amount, not a ton but at least a few portions of each.
I have a little riccia in stock - unfortunately it got overwhelmed by some duckweed, but with a little gentle grooming it might be salvageable. I'd gladly toss it in as a freebie with any other plants.
Unfortunately, blyxa, riccia and bolbitis are dreadful from wholesalers. I'll get back in touch with my local bolbitis source, he brings me lots of cool plants and is moving away soon. My best local source of blyxa was bringing me japonica, I don't know if I've ever seen auberti in person.
 
#6 ·
Ide like to see some rotala and more rare stem plants, Rotala macrandra is a pretty good bright plant that needs only a little exp to grow. And some fissidens. Rich, you have some good potential for those 4 open plant tanks you got now. You should do each with a different difficulty level, label them as low light, low-med, med-high, high light plants, so theres not so much confusion on what they are buying and can keep. And its a good way to upsell and school lights. Try to get some above water growing plants too, the aquaponics scene is picking up around here. And Aluka that's Rich from Unique Aquaria in Woburn.
 
#18 ·
If anybody wants to trade in some fissidens - please let me know, I'd love to get some in stock (that's another one where the wholesalers send us a cup of brown goo and call it a plant)
Thanks Drewsplantednutz, I agree completely - that was my plan with the 4 tanks -
One High light, two med, and one lower light, with mostly potted anubias in the bare bottom low light tank.
The 400w of T5 VHO on the show tank helps too :)

We lucked into some riparian plant cupsthat suction cup to the side of the tank, which I've been trying different plants in (some do well, some don't). They're a great way for us to merchandise our terrarium plants where people can see them :)
 
#9 · (Edited)
Downoi, different mosses and fern sorts, glosso, blyxa, hydrocotyles, h. pinnatifida.

However, and I don't know anything about the budgetary matters involved in this, but I think if you guys would install one tank with high demand plants and provide them with good lighting, co2 and fertilization (yes i know ALGAE) that might make some of the plants more appealing. I was just at an LFS and the plant assortment was very good. However, all plants were either already dead or on their way out so, as much as I was actually looking for some of the ones they offered, I didn't buy any since mush plants are not appealing.

I think it's great that you guys are asking the consumer what we'd like to buy. I'd love to have a well stocked LFS locally so I don't have to ship. Also, if in any way possible get some desert gobies (C. eremius) ;).
 
#15 ·
yeah - one of the reasons I had us setup this way, is that I used to get so annoyed when we got a nice order of plants in and half melted in a week.
I'm a goby nut - working on getting some gudgeons and gobies into the rotation. Had a local source of C. eremius but just heard that he had a house fire (rumor is that there was a Stealth heater involved :( ).

Last time I ordered them they didn't sell to great, but gonna try again.
Just ordered an undescribed Brachygobius sp - hoping they will be freshwater but suspecting they will be brackish, in which case I'll probably take the whole order home and put them in a brackish tank there :D
 
#10 ·
An often overlooked area are the smaller plants so cherished by nano and pico tank owners. Invaluable in smaller tanks, the same plants often work well as foreground plants in large set ups as well.

Cryptocryne parva, anubia nana petite, dwarf pennywort, marsilea quadrafolia, baby tears, glosso, the smaller variety of vals, microswords and dwarf sag...I'm sure there are a ton more that I've yet to find hiding out in the master lists of plant suppliers that just aren't featured enough to have hit my radar yet.
 
#11 ·
Thanks !!
Yes, this is Unique Aquaria in Woburn, MA

We have four "plant tanks" -- two 48" x 24"w x 16"h and two 48" x 24"w x 12"h -- running on moderately high to low/moderate lighting (IMO) -- from HO t5's to normal output t5's.
These are our primary plant tanks, and while they are holding some fish, the plan long term is to avoid keeping commonly sold "fast" fish in these tanks so that we don't disturb the plants when we catch the fish.
The plant tanks are running on a central sump and are getting basic ferts.
At present I'm not dosing C02 just because I suspect it would be quickly outgassed at the sump. I may add it later (we already have the equipment).


We also keep "loose" plants like hornwort, "guppy grass", java moss, and pellia in our "fish" tanks - as much for the fishes benefit as for sales.

If anybody has any plants they'd like to trade in for store credit, feel free to email us ( rich@uniqueaquaria.com ) - we've found that many plants are horrible from wholesalers but great from local growers (you'd be amazed at the crap that wholesalers sell as java moss or bolbitis) -- most of our Vals (3 types), ferns, and moss are locally grown, as is all of our Pellia.
 
#13 ·
That sounds very good and reasonable. I think quality can go a long way over a huge assortment though. And I have not been to your store so I definitely am not implying that you guys don't have spectacular plants, I'm just speaking from experience with other LFS.

What about other products? For example, I'm sure we all would love to be able to come to you guys for substrates (ADA (although I understand that miught be difficult), Azoo, FSS, etc.), nicer tanks (rimless etc.), eheim brand products (heaters and filters specifically). Again, I know nothing about budget and I understand that as much as we all have our dream LFS, you guys are a business.
 
#14 ·
Agreed - but lately, having the same quality plants for 2 months straight has led to people getting bored :) so I wanted to make sure I have some "destination" plants as well. And to be honest, water sprite trimmings from our show tank kinda took over our plant tanks for a while.

The store does a huge saltwater business, so as far as drygoods go, we tend to carry alot of the nicer products that work for both markets.
Eheim canisters, Deep Blue brand rimless tanks, etc. Our main "plant" substrate is eco-complete. Alot of other drygoods decisions are still being made - its only been about 9 months since we moved from Boston, and while we increased our "wet" square footage and added a showroom, the square footage for drygoods went down and is still being merchandised. We're constantly evaluating product lines, trying to pare down stuff we don't need or don't want so we have more for what we really want to carry.
We're also trying to focus on product lines we can get from dependable, responsive wholesalers who offer strong support -- we're kinda fed up with wholesalers or manufacturers who don't back their product or take months to send us orders.

Heaters - oy vey.
I don't think I've ever found a heater I really trust. At home I tend to replace them about every 12-18 months. At the store, I think I've tried (and eventually been shocked by ) every brand. Also had just about every brand fail (both "on" and "off").
(I think I have about 8 heaters hanging on a hook at home, to be used in my premix barrels for water changes)
Eheim/Jager heaters are currently special order heaters for us - they don't sell well enough at their pricepoint to take up shelf space, and we get better wholesale support of returned heaters from other brands - but we can get them pretty quickly for anybody who wants one.
 
#23 ·
@redpaulhus

Do you carry any freshwater snails at unique aquaria? If so can you let me know what species/price? I visited your shop soon after you opened but was looking mostly at saltwater at that time. Cant remember if i saw any freshwater snails there. I do remember being amazed by your planted show tank though. The size of one of the anubias was unbelievable to me. Thanks for any info.
 
#25 ·
I live in revere and wouldn't mind driving up to UA! We can schedule a road trip some time next weekend! Meeting place wonderland t station. B-). Could you check if you have at least a trio of badis badis :) or 2m 4f. Thanks :)
 
#29 · (Edited)
Please, oh please, oh please get some duckweed! ;)
 
#33 ·
should of put the sarcasm face in the post ;)
 
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