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A couple of weeks ago we found out that Mikey was a little sick. It was due to an improper balance of chemicals in his water. We corrected the problem by removing all the river rocks (except a few in some Tupperware to hold the plants) and keeping the water incredibly clean. We haven't had to revert to adding chemicals to fix it, but we have some on hand if we can't maintain the proper levels. He just got an upgrade to an XP3 (he had two separate, smaller filters before). And he got two air stones, which he loves, and some fresh anacharis, which he is already munching down on. All in all it cost around three hundred dollars to upgrade everything. But it's well worth it to make Mikey happy.

This might be a dumb question being that it's an aquatic plant, but how long can anacharis stay in the tank before it goes bad? Or does it even go bad? Anybody have any other good experiences with other types of aquatic plants?

Ive had my Anarcharis in the tank for about a week now. And with a full spectrum light they stayed fresh.
Since i put some on one side of the tank and the other on the dark side

The ones on the dark side not getting any light, started getting brown in like 1 and a half weeks.

Im sure Mikey will chomp them down before they start going bad

well they're like growing plants rather than keeping veggies.

You just grow em in the water.

He's already started I've got some on each side of his tank, but there's light on both sides. I'll keep an eye out for browning. As soon as it starts to brown, do I need to take it out?

nope!

No you can just cut the brown part of the stem off

Itll probably start getting brown on the bottom

Prune the new growth part at the top of the plant and toss the old lower part when it starts to look bad. It will continue to grow from any part of the stem.

Sweet action!! Best investment ever! And he's already started munching, so we're good to go!

Now since he is eating this stuff, do I still need to offer him other greens, or can I just stick to non-leafy veggies and his pellets?

Its important to give him some variety
Hell get tired of the anarcharis and soon wont like it.

Once in a while throw some greens in there