Mystery plants

[Divinityinlove]

Hi everyone. I recently bought these at an aquatic shop where they were submerged in a tank. On this forum I have been notified that they may not be aquatic plants.

Please can you help identify if you've ever seen them as aquatic plants or not?

The tall stem with fanned leaves.

The red/purple broad leaves.

 

[Essjay]

The purple one looks a bit like a dracena or cordyline which are not aquatic plants. I have no idea what the plant doing a mini palm tree impersonation is.

You will find several terrestrial plants sold in fish stores, unfortunately. As with fish, it is better to research a plant before buying. I do this to find out if it's an 'easy' plant which is OK with my lighting, and to find out if it is a tiny plant which will get swamped by larger plants or if it will grow so large it will attempt to escape the tank.
I also buy my plants from on-line sellers - there is a lot more choice and I only buy from shops which guarantee their plants are shrimp and snail safe. Most plants imported from the far east have been treated with snail killing chemicals and/or insecticides while those grown in the EU are safe.

 

[FranciscoB]

The "palm"-like one looks like a papyrus plant (Cyperaceae), which also is not a true aquatic plant. It is more of a riparian zone plant, living at the edges of streams and swamps. It can take more submersion than the purple plant, but it will also not do well long term if fully submerged.
Depending on the type of aquarium setup, it can be planted in a flower pot that is raised off the bottom of the tank, such that most of it is out of the water, except the roots and a bit of the stem. In that manner, it may thrive. That is the manner this plant is usually kept in ponds.

 

[Divinityinlove]

The purple one looks a bit like a dracena or cordyline which are not aquatic plants. I have no idea what the plant doing a mini palm tree impersonation is.

You will find several terrestrial plants sold in fish stores, unfortunately. As with fish, it is better to research a plant before buying. I do this to find out if it's an 'easy' plant which is OK with my lighting, and to find out if it is a tiny plant which will get swamped by larger plants or if it will grow so large it will attempt to escape the tank.
I also buy my plants from on-line sellers - there is a lot more choice and I only buy from shops which guarantee their plants are shrimp and snail safe. Most plants imported from the far east have been treated with snail killing chemicals and/or insecticides while those grown in the EU are safe.

Somehow I thought buying from a pond shop would be better. Previously I only bought from eBay and amazon but you never know who the seller is. It's very confusing why this would be the case as I was quite thrilled to buy in person for once.

 

[FranciscoB]

Many of the plants sold by (most?) pond suppliers are not tru aquatic plants, meant to be grown on the edges of the ponds, under little water but not fully underwater.

 

[Divinityinlove]

Many of the plants sold by (most?) pond suppliers are not tru aquatic plants, meant to be grown on the edges of the ponds, under little water but not fully underwater.

That would make sense but they have a section with pond plants where plants are as you describe. The plants I bought were in the tropical fish section submerged under water by about 20cm in an aquarium so that's odd.

 

[Essjay]

That sounds about right. They don't know or don't care that some of the plants they sell are terrestrial so they put them all together in a tank of water. If it was a specialist plant shop, that would be different as they should know and understand their stock, but with a shop that sells fish and a few plants on the side it is unfortunately down to the customer to do their research.