Any idea what this plant is?

Essjay said:

This plant? algae? moss? arrived with some shrimp a few months ago. It is growing through the Java moss in the shrimp tank and I have no idea what it is.

It is long very thin, brittle stems with a small pair of leaves at intervals along the stem. As you can see in the photo, it's mainly stem. Do I leave it in the tank or remove it whenever I see a bit?
The pot in the photo is 6 cm or 2.25 inches across the bottom to give an idea of scale.

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Bub said:

Dwarf bladderwort. A carnivorous pest plant. I struggled with it a few years back, grows very fast, wraps around other plants and each piece that breaks off can form a whole new plant. Not fun to deal with ime.

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Essjay said:

Thanks for the ID

I've been picking it out of the Java moss, that was today's crop during the water change. I'll be more vigilant from now on.



I just googled it to find the latin name and see there's someone on US Ebay selling it as an aquarium micro-pest killer

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Essjay said:

I find it interesting that 2 shrimps sellers - one in the US and one in the UK - both had this in the bag of shrimps. Do shrimp breeders like it?

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OnlyGenusCaps said:

Yup, that's Utricularia gibba. One of my other interests is carnivorous plants. Believe it or not, I added to my aquarium on purpose. Along with Utricularia graminifolia. It's a weakness. I like them both in there.

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Essjay said:

I find it interesting that 2 shrimps sellers - one in the US and one in the UK - both had this in the bag of shrimps. Do shrimp breeders like it?

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