Frogbit Root Length

Circus · Aug 22, 2021

Exactly how long will the roots on my frogbit plants grow? The plants have been in my tanks almost a year, but I had thought they all died off up until about 4 months ago. Most of the growth has been in the last couple months. The longest roots so far are almost 12 inches (39 cm) from the water line. Here are some pictures.

*edited to actually add pics.

Essjay · Aug 23, 2021

My frogbit roots look different from yours. I would take a photo but the tank lights are off at the moment. Mine have thick roots with root hairs growing down the length, and they don't branch. These roots grow very long very quickly. I know you are not supposed to but if I didn't trim the roots every week they would trail on the bottom of the tank. Hmm, maybe trimming them is why they look different?
Perhaps I should leave one plant untrimmed to see what happens.

Circus · Aug 23, 2021

I had one frogbit plant in a very heavily fertilized tank (no livestock present) with bright lights left on 18 hrs a day. The roots got super super long, but not very branchy.

I use that tank to grow floating plants that I then sell to locals, mostly water lettuce. I might switch that to mostly frogbit, as it does a lot better in standard aquariums. The water lettuce will fall apart without really bright lights right above them.

Essjay · Aug 23, 2021

To confirm what plants I have which grow these long roots, this is what the plants look like when they are in need of thinning out in my main tank

And this is what they were like in my shrimp tank. This is such a small tank that although the frogbit didn't grow as well as the main tank, the roots were just far to big for a 12 inch cube so I got some red root floater and as that grew I moved the frogbit to my main tank.

Circus · Aug 23, 2021

I am thinking of getting rid of most of my water lettuce, and switching to frog bit, at least in my bigger tanks. I did notice that most of my plants are pretty large, nothing like the three small plants I started with (I was expecting them to stay at about that size). When my tank was mostly overrun with water lettuce, the frog bit runners (is that the right term?) sometimes extended almost 8", just to find an unoccupied patch of tank. Since I took most of the lettuce out, the frog bit it really taking over.

Essjay · Aug 23, 2021

That sounds like the frogbit in my main tank

BLK · Sep 5, 2021

Essjay said:
That sounds like the frogbit in my main tank

Has anyone had Gouramis in their tanks with Frogbit?

Circus · Sep 5, 2021

BLK said:
Has anyone had Gouramis in their tanks with Frogbit?

Yeah, they love the cover it provides. I have 5 pearl gourami in my 55, and it has a LOT of frogbit. They hang out in the roots.

BLK · Sep 5, 2021

Circus said:
Yeah, they love the cover it provides. I have 5 pearl gourami in my 55, and it has a LOT of frogbit. They hang out in the roots.

Nice! I just ordered some.

Essjay · Sep 6, 2021

I too have pearl gouramis and mine spend most of their time among the roots like Circus' gouramis.

The plants will be small with short roots when you get them but they will grow. And grow. I have to remove plants every so often or there would be solid plant mass covering the entire water surface.

anewbie · Sep 6, 2021

In the right environment I've had them grow over 2 feet; but in my guppy tank they never seem to get more than 4 inches. In my 5 gallon they will reach the substrate and start growing in it; but i usually cut them off before they get that long these days since i put a few fishes in the tank and it obstructs the swimming area.

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