[Mud]

What are your go-to online shop for purchasing snail-free plants? I know I can get cultures which I have been told are snail free but I can find where to buy stem or potted plants. Is it even possible?
Thanks in advance!

 

[MissCris]

I've had pretty good luck with Tokyo Aquatic; they have stems and pots in addition to TC cups. Ordered from them several times with no issues.

Also no problem with the one order I got from Liquid Creations, and you can buy single stems for pretty cheap if you are looking to experiment with a bunch of varieties at once (I only ever ordered stems from them though, so I can't speak either way as to the quality of their potted plants).

There are several aquarium plant sellers on the big auction site who have pretty good reputations and also guarantee no snails. I have purchased probably 60% of my plants that way; the key is to find vendors who guarantee their product quality and cleanliness, order one just plant the first time to see if it's up to snuff, and then return to purchase more from the ones you know are worthwhile.

I'm not a giant fan of TC cups myself, so I look mostly for pots/stems too. I've used TC plants before and probably will again because it's often a challenge to get certain species any other way, but my experience has been that they are much harder to transition than more mature plants, plus they tend to be a bit expensive relative to plant size.

 

[minorhero]

If you really want to get rid of snails then its pretty easy to buy the plants and quarantine and treat them in a random tank (or even plastic storage container. There are commercial chemicals for killing snails on the market as well as diy solutions (bleach dip or Potassium Permanganate, etc). If the tank is just a random 10 gallon or storage container setup for this purpose you can over dose your chemicals a bit to make sure you kill any snails. A lot easier and cheaper to do this and buy from your local fish store then online shops.