Water meal…

I inherited some water meal, in with some other floating plants… it’s literally half the size of common duck weed… it’s been choking out the Asian water moss in my African Tetra tank… but I’m noticing many of the Tetras have been eating it, some, pretty heavily… reading up on it, it’s highly nutritious… and I’m witnessing more growth, and wellness of the fish, that are eating it… the yellow tails, and the blue and gold’s are eating it regularly in the mornings… I normally feed at night, when I can watch the fish… but at 1st light, I’ve been watching them feed heavily on it… the Brichardi, Blood Caps, and Cats look least interested, with the others eating a little now and then…
Now if I could separate it from the Water Moss, that would be the best, if it could thrive on it’s own… but maybe it needs the structure of the Water Moss to thrive… reading says it likes calm stagnant water, and this is a highly flowing tank, so I’m surprised it’s here in the 1st place… it is slowly killing off the Water Moss, so if it needs the “structure”, I may have to get creative later… I do have a floating plant ring, intended to hold back the Water Moss, so my Anubis can get more light, and the Water Meal seems to like the calm area inside the plant ring, so maybe a few of those, will maintain the Water Meal, after the moss is gone???

Water meal ? Never heard of it .

this in more layman terms...

Interesting . I just learned something new today . I like when that happens .

It’s like having a self feeder… A breakfast of water meal… note how much more water meal is in the ring... this is 24 hours later, than the picture above, & with fish eating it during the day... it almost doubles every day..., under these bright lights

Special tools required… even though the fish eat this a lot, it’s multiplying faster than they can eat it… my Tilapia being bigger, would consume a lot more of it, and once it covers the surface downstream, it slowly pushes it’s way towards the filter, when it gets too close, it “snow globes” in the tank, getting pushed under the surface, and carried to the other side of the tank, in the current, before it rises to the surface again…

So I’m trying to keep it in only half the tanks surface, downstream, where it remains on the surface, and filters the light above my Anubis plant…

So how to remove it??? I have a fine mesh net, but that works to remove the symbiotic plants living in the water meal ( some other duckweed varieties, and remnants of the water moss that hosted the water meal in the 1st place, but the water meal, is finer, than my finest mesh net, resulting in me have nearly 100 % water meal in the tank… and the water meal is thriving, without it’s original host… I’m surprised at how small they actually are, and that they pass right through my finest net… I tried lining my net with a paper coffee filter, but while it caught the water meal, it’s too floppy, and doesn’t stay open… so I have an ultra fine stainless reusable coffee filter coming… I’m hoping that’s the tool for the job… if I continue to use the net, I’ll end up with pure water meal, which is an excellent food source, and then I can maintain the % surface cover I’m looking for, in this tank…

base for the new tool... just need to remove the wire bail, and add a handle...

Half the size of duckweed, so like Salvinia. Pass unless in a tank specifically to propagate it and to be used as food in other tanks. I too have been using plastic tubing corrals, and their work, but the smaller the floaters, the less well they work. However, some fish thrive on them, so they are still good to have.

It’s taken a few weeks, but I almost have purely water meal, in this tank now… I just pulled out a bunch, that went to the tilapia tanks… a fish net, catches all the other floating greenery, and the coffee basket above grabs this stuff l… there are still a few other floating plants to net out… but it’s mostly water meal now