Waterplants Alert Horizontal Scroll: Water Hyacinth This floating plant is an excellent choice for shading your pond and its roots make an ideal spawning grounds for fish. However when collected in the wild or if you get them from a contaminated source the roots can be a home for many other bugs and parasites that may harm all life in your pond. Always be careful that you get these plants from a reliable source. Horizontal Scroll: Water Lettuce Another good source for shading, but not as good as hyacinth for fish spawning . Never the less the same problem with harmful parasites can occur from this plants roots, be aware of where you purchase these plants. Text Box: Water Plants Alert We have received many emails and phone calls from water gardeners that have purchased plants and the plants are turning yellow, sometimes they have bugs, and worse yet the plants died. They are asking us why this could be happening and what they can do to remedy the problems. When we ask where they purchased their plants, most of them said on E-bay or that they did a swap with people in chat rooms or forums. Rarely does anyone say the plants they purchased from a licensed nursery or garden center, had any of the problems mentioned. You see folks licensed companies have to pass USDA inspections, therefore eliminating the possibility of any kind of disease or bug. Now days you can buy and sell and swap just about anything without a license. We have found that there are some people selling plants that they have gathered from the wild. Water hyacinth, water lettuce and some marginal plants and they are being offered for a less price than a licensed nursery. This presents a problem for water gardeners! By collecting the plants in the wild, it is possible to ship plants with diseases, bugs, and parasites that can harm your fish and your other plants. When swapping plants be sure that you are getting your plants from a reliable person, and that the plant is what you were told it is, and not just some plant they wanted to get rid of due to a problem with their pond or their plants. Keep in mind how much you have invested in you’re plants and your Koi or other fish, you don’t want to jeopardize what you worked so hard to establish. You wouldn’t want parasites, anchor worms, and dropsy which comes from bacteria, which is easily transmitted in plants like Water Hyacinth, water lettuce and other plants that have not been inspected. For lilies the most common culprit is crown rot. Text Box: Bugs, Diseases, Parasites.