# plastic plants



## poiuy704 (Nov 6, 2010)

Just a warning to others, I bought some plastic plants on EBAY a few years ago, I don't recall where from but discovered they had started to disintegrate causing my tank to be covered in small floating particles. Long story short before I realized what it was floating on the top of the water a number of my cichlids have eaten the pieces of plastic. I found two parrot fish belly up this morning with rock hard bellies, kind of gross but I cut one open and sure enough his belly was full of plastic bits. I'm hoping that's all I'll lose but there's a couple of others that aren't looking too good.


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

Wow... so sorry to hear =(


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## Mark Brown (Jan 21, 2017)

The worst thing about that story is it is a strong reminder of what we pollute the oceans with every day, your small scale disaster, while terrible, pales in comparison to the damage being done by every piece of discarded plastic we create.

Sorry for your loss.


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## Mick2016 (Jun 16, 2016)

". . . before I realized what it was floating on the top of the water . . . "

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I check my tank DAILY at feeding times to do a "head (or tail?) count" and look for anything which might be amiss throughout the tank (e.g. hoses, suction cups, thermometer, filter/pump, etc.). Takes only a couple of minutes at most - while the fishes are eating. It would be pretty easy for me to spot if something odd were floating on the surface.

I once had some silk/plastic plants in my tank. Looked nice enough and I didn't have to worry about these dying off or losing colour. But I decided to toss them and go for the planted-tank look. My desire to change was more about a natural look rather than safety issues. Not sure why it took so long to "notice" foreign materials floating on the top of your water, but thanks for the info.


Maybe this is a sign for you to explore the idea of a planted tank, too?


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