BTDarters' Articles

A PLASTIC PLANT PRIMER By Jerry Michels, MAS While this article is written "tongue-in-cheek," there are many ideas – some even practical – that you might use. If this article causes you to think "outside the box," it has served its purpose. Reprinted with permission from the author.

Question # 1: Do plastic plants grow? I’ve been doing experiments with plastic plants lately. One of my experiments is to see if plastic plants grow. I thought that I was on to something last week when my plastic hygro appeared to have grown about an inch and a half. Upon further examination, I discovered that the plant hadn’t really grown – the background on that tank had slipped down about two inches. On another occasion my eight inch Brazilian sword appeared to have shot up. Come to find out, some of the lead weights had fallen off and the plant had started to float. I couldn’t see the bottom of the plant because it was hidden behind some rocks toward the back of the tank. Another way to get growth out of plastic plants is to occasionally replace the plants with similar but slightly larger plants. You can get quite a growth pattern if you start with the four inch variety and work up to the maximum height for your tank. It’s good for six to twelve months. By that time somebody will have caught on to your scheme and you’ll have to stop anyway. Use those shorter plants in other tanks and you’ll have some people fooled again. In any event, it’s a lot more fun to make plants grow without having to trim them back. Unless you want to. Then go ahead and replant the shorter plants in reverse order in the original tank. Bound to impress your neighbor. But you’ll be in trouble if he wants some of your cuttings for his bare tank. Question # 2: How do plastic plants reproduce? Everyone knows that if you hang two or more clothes hangers in a closet and close the door, very shortly there will be a multitude of hangers – even quicker than rabbits. Plastic plants reproduce by the sealant method. Every so often, one sees an extra stem floating at the top of the tank. Instead of throwing these stems away, save them until you have four or five stems of the same kind of plant – or not – if you want to create a hybrid plant. Then silicon these stems to an extra base – there always seems to be some around. One new plant for the tank! Many plants are made so that each stem can be plucked off and put back on in another place or on another plant. This method is called plastic grafting. Question # 3: Should plastic plants be in natural colors? I’m a purist when it comes to the color of plants. The plants should be the same color as they are found in nature. Of course, no manufacturer has added dead leaves – those brownish in color or yellow and fading. Then there would be even more reality. But, those pink leaves and other fluorescent and Halloween colors have got to go. Might as well have plastic fish and be done with it! (Such a set up is available.) Do the fish care about the color of plants? Probably not – the color is for decorators who go for flashy or solid colors. Most of those aquarists who like bright plant colors probably prefer salt water fish with their bright and solid colors but can’t afford a salt water tank. They belong in the same category as those people who cover up the oak trim in their own houses with solid color paint and gaudy colors – no regard for the natural look. Question # 4: Are plastic plants good to eat? I didn’t include this section to tell you that fish eat plastic plants – nor should you try to eat them. Though I did have one young visitor to my fish room say, "Oh, look at that dumb fish! It’s eating that plastic plant. Doesn’t it know that plastic isn’t good to eat?" That kid probably has the kind of parents who dump a ton of fish food into the tank and then whine, when the fish die, that the poor fish needed lots of food because they were so hungry that they were trying to eat plastic plants. Let them float saltine crackers in their tanks! If the fish is a plant eater – like a goldfish – it won’t eat a plastic plant. It knows better – in the way that a fish with a small brain can know. But, if the fish is an eater of algae, then it probably doesn’t care if the plant is live or plastic. It just wants the algae off of the plant. It may prefer that plastic plant because it is more rigid – more like the rocks it normally scrapes for food. There are a lot more nutritious goodies on the plastic plants than algae. There are all sorts of micro-organisms just waiting to please the palate of young fry or even the adults in the colony. Those plastic plants provide a lot of extra surface area for miniature food creatures. This surface will last longer in plastic and give the creatures time to get established. Question # 5: Do plastic plants work as spawning ground for fish? For fish, such as tetras, who are mid-water spawners, plastic plants can be the ideal spawning grounds. Got any stems with leaves, that no longer stay attached to that plastic base? Then time them together with lead weights. Even bend the top ends around and tie them to the bottom ends of the stems. These plastic wreaths make good hide-outs for sinking eggs or newly-hatched fry. I find this especially helpful when I use bare bottom tanks which don’t have gravel in which to anchor the plants. Lead weights work better than big rocks and make the bottom look much better. Question # 6: Do plastic plants look real? Did you ever notice people walking around gift shops, hotel lobbies, or even your house peering intently at the plants and their flowers? They may even sniff or touch the plants trying to figure out whether they’re live or plastic. You can’t use the word "real" anymore to refer to live plants because plastic plants are real plants – in plastic form. A while back I had a friend take care of my plants and critters while I was on vacation. When I returned, he confessed that for the first ten days he had been watering some plastic plants hanging in a basket on the porch. Of course, this was the same friend who never did find my parakeets. My fish and plants – both live and plastic – did survive. Just be careful of including some artificial plants in your tank that come from gift shops. They may contain metals that will leech into your tank and change the ph and hardness of your water. Question # 7: Do I need lighting for my plastic plants? Yes, you need lighting for your plastic plants if you want to see them. Your fish will do better if they are under lights a certain number of hours per day. If you have only plastic plants in your tank and no fish or just plastic fish, then your plastic plants will probably do better with no light. Just turn on the lights when you want to view the tank and its contents and off when you’re done. Kind of like a refrigerator – the light goes off when you close the door (Are you really sure?). Light tends to fade the plastic plants over time, or is it just the chemicals in the water? People who are most concerned about how the tank presents itself will want to work with all types of lighting – overhead, lumens, brightness, spot, flood, submerged, colored, and whatever else. This could be the subject of an entire article – maybe a book! Question # 8: Can plastic plants be killed? Yes, one needs a "green thumb" or is it a "plastic thumb" in order to cultivate plastic plants. Some plastic plants die of old age and there’s not much that can be done short of keeping the plants out of water. But that defeats the whole purpose and function of plastic plants in the first place. I haven’t done any real research on the different types of plastic used in making plants, but it does seem that sooner or later most plastic plants deteriorate in water. They become brittle and break apart. Be especially alert when using plants that have small, delicate parts like foxtail, cabomba, and hornwort. Even leaves from the rotala plant make a mess on the surface of the water and in the filter when they become brittle and break off. Generally, the same plants in the live form that give this trouble will do the same thing in the plastic form. Some aquarists actually do kill their plastic plants. Treat plastic plants with the same care that you give to live plants. Don’t pull plants out of the gravel by the ends of the stems. Pick them up by the "roots" (base). No live-plant propagator would take to whacking live plants with a net while trying to catch fish. Neither should the plastic plant curator! Unlike live-plant stems which are done when they get broken off, unless they can grow roots at the break, plastic stems can be reattached with a little silicon. It might be a little unsightly, but with practice it works – especially if it’s the stem to the base. Be gentle with all plants! Question # 9: What other benefits do plastic plants give? Plastic plants have lasting-power over live plants. When you find or arrange (create) a perfect plastic plant, it won’t grow out of the perfected shape, nor will it suddenly die or grow new leaves. It’ll probably take less time to put together a perfect plastic plant or arrangement than to grow live plants to the same condition. This would be especially helpful in a museum or some other educational display. Much better for everyone to see good examples of plants over a longer period of time than to go with the precarious live plants. It’s much easier to clean plastic plants of certain unwanted algae than to fuss with live plants and algae. Just toss the plastic plants in a solution of bleach and water and then rinse them off before returning them to the tank. Just try that with live plants! And nobody has introduced snails to a tank by adding new plastic plants. Conclusion: If after reading this article (bless you), you would like to know more or would just like to add your two cents worth, jot them down and I’ll try to include them in a future article. If I find someone with a good camera, there might be a slide talk in the future. Jerry Michels, MAS

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