Red Root Floater Phyllanthus Fluitans

Ok so what you get is nothing like picture. You get individual leaves that look more like duckweed and I am about 90% sure the majority that had to be trashed was duck weed. The seller sends a nice little insert that talks about plant melting. Well these plants were not melting most of them were dead. The majority of them were broken or torn leaves. They came in a cup well packaged but the plant it's self looked like someone reached into a tank of water where they were growing grabbed a hand full and squeezed them really hard like a sponge. Most of the leaves look like they were muddled like mint. The cup it's self that contained the plants were bone dry. In the end I ended up with about 5 viable leaves that had a tiny root like duck weed and on with a decent root on it. And that is it. The leaves were not melting like the insert mentioned may happen and it does happen from time to time but that was not the case with these they were not properly harvested or packaged. Go outside to a clover patch and take your hang grab a handful and then twist them until they break off. You will get an idea of how these looked. I have been growing aquatic plants and aqua scaping for 30 years and never have I had someone pass off plants in such horrible condition as possibly melting I know the difference between melting and rot and while the leaves were not rotted they were not viable at all. I am not going to bother with a refund because I did not take pictures of them in the container but the attached photo are what I managed to save out of the container. Now this could just be a one off thing maybe an employee did not do their job properly who knows but as it stands I can not recommend these plants nor seller to anyone.

The plants came in a small sealed cup, packaged well, and arrived very healthy! They had flourishing roots and leaves. I've had these plants in my tank for a few weeks now. The roots are red, not incredibly vibrant, but that could definitely be due to nutrient/ light deficiency from me. They are growing rapidly. I put them in my vertical 5 gallon tank with an average LED light and they covered about a third of the surface in my tank, but within a few weeks they're already covering over half of the surface. I have moved some into my ten gallon, and I'm sure I will eventually have enough to put in my 29 gallon. The photo I included is of my ten gallon. Overall, I've had a very good experience with these plants. They're healthy, grow quickly, and have very cool roots that my fish love to hang out in. :)

**update after growing out the few leaves that survived, the majority of what was shipped is duckweed. NOT what I wanted. Out of what was shipped, ONE red-root floater survived. Just go to your local pet store, you'll find these (albeit, maybe for a higher price) but you know what you're getting and it'll be alive. Arrived rather quickly, so thats nice. These are obviously clippings from a larger plant system. The assortment I received was mostly just leaves without roots (I've placed these in fertilized water with sufficient light to see if I can get more/any growth). Leaves are green and roots are a typical yellow-brown shade. No "red roots" or red leaves in my shipment. We'll see how increased light changes that. The few clippings/leaves that have roots attached are in decent shape. But out of the "30+ plants" that there were supposed to be, there are maybe 5 that 1) have roots attached and 2) have at least 1 healthy leaf. I wouldn't buy these again, but I think I'll be able to propagate a good amount of coverage within a few months.

I am new to live aquarium plants, so I ordered these because they seemed like an easier plant to start with. With that being said, here is what I have observed. 1. I don't know if there were 30 plants in the container, but it was full of plants. The plants were crammed into the container, and it definitely looked (as another poster has commented) that someone took a handful of plants and shoved them into the container. 2. The leaves of the plants were a bit yellowed and creased when they arrived, but I figured that they had been in a dry container inside a box and an envelope for a week while traveling through the mail in the summer. I've had them for almost a week at this point and have lost about 1/3 of the plants. Several more have gone very dark, but it still looks like they haven't died yet, so I am giving them some more time. 3. The roots are not red. They are brown and have not changed in color at all in the week that I have had them. I'm still hoping that as they continue to get healthy, they will begin to look as red as they are in the pictures, but I'm not sure they will. 4. I put the plants right into my tank from the container. If I had known better, I might have done it differently. There are a lot of small pieces of plant that I have had to fish out of the tank. Individual leaves with no roots and root pieces with no leaves have been floating around and into my filter all week. The damaged plants look like they were torn from a larger clump of plants with no regard for plant health. There have also been some dead bugs floating in the tank since I added these plants. I'm not sure what they are (again, I am new to aquarium plants and their associated pests) but I'm hoping nothing living hitchhiked into my tank as well. 6. The leaves of the plants that are looking healthy have really greened up in the last week. They look great from the top! Photo is from a week after placing plants in my tank.

Nice and green when arrived. Did not have alot of roots and half have died. Hopefully the little will do good and reproduce and grow.