Floating plants

[Slamatrix]

Hi all!

Hope someone can help,

Doing lots of research when it comes to taking care of my fishies.
Seeing a lot of comments pointing to getting floating plants.

I dont have any real plants in my tank yet, i plan to eventually but have not made the jump yet.
I know very little about live plants at the mo, so i wondered if there is any easy floating plants to put in?
I've seen a few things like water lettuce, but i dont know if they are any good or if they are easy to look after.

Any help or info would be much appreciated.

Matt

 

[Byron]

Floating plants tend to be easier to grow because they are closer to the tank light (and brightness is usually not an issue) and they have what is termed the aerial advantage. Floating leaves (and some actually grow leaves into the air above the surface) are able to assimilate CO2 from the air which for the plant is about four times easier than CO2 taken from the submersed leaves. They are fast growing, so sometimes a liquid fertilizer is helpful, but not always.

The light is important, from the standpoint of spectrum as well as intensity, so describing the light you now have will be helpful. Sometimes a new tube or bulb for the present fixture might be needed.

To the plants. There are three generally available from time to time that grow much the same, with dangling root masses under the floating leaves. Fish love these, as the roots provide a source of microscopic live food, and many species will spawn in them too.

Water Sprite, Ceratopteris cornuta, is my favourite. This is truly a beautiful plant. Daughter plants will form on the alternate fronds (being a true fern the "leaves" are fronds) once the plant is settled. It can grow quite large, with leaves easily covering the entire surface. Sometimes this is needed, but if not it is easy to remove some of the daughter plants and discard the large parent plant periodically.

Water Lettuce, Pistia stratiotes, is similar, except it propagates by sending out little runners with a daughter plant. Another plant is Tropical Frogbit, Limnobium laevigatum, which also sends out a runner with a new plant.

There are much smaller floating plants, such as the Salvinia species, and even smaller the common Duckweed. I have these in some tanks where they can bee very useful, but for general display one of the three larger plants mentioned above are better.

Some stem plants will grow nicely left floating. Brazilian Pennywort is especially nice.

Byron.

 

[Lyuba_buk]

Hello! I recently bought several shrimps and got some interesting flowers (?) with it. I wonder what is is and what i should do to encourage its growth. I put it in my tank. The pic is attached.

 

[Mark Z.]

I have frogbit. It does very well and spreads like crazy. I have to throw away about half of it every other week. If you want some and live in the US, let me know and I'll send you some.

 

[King puff]

Lyuba, that is duckweed. Duckweed grows like a weed, maybe faster. In no time and with little effort, that plant will be covering the top of your tank. It looks nice! To me.

 

[NickAu]

I am sure there are people who will argue that I have too many floating plants, I think I have just enough.

 

[King puff]

I really like your tank! I have always been wanting duckweed but I have a HOB filter so the duckweed would get clumped in a corner.

 

[NickAu]

I have a HOB filter

So do I, use straws like I did. Memo to self..... Buy clear straws, they are $2 for 100.

 

[King puff]

Thanks for the idea!

 

[Lyuba_buk]

Lyuba, that is duckweed. Duckweed grows like a weed, maybe faster. In no time and with little effort, that plant will be covering the top of your tank. It looks nice! To me.

Awesome!! Does it need lots of light? It looks nice to me, too! Thanks for identifying!
I also have a regular filter, which hangs on the side of my tank... should i also make this construction to avoid cloggs? I was thinking these flowers will just go through it...

 

[NickAu]

should i also make this construction to avoid cloggs?

Yes.

Does it need lots of light?

Not really, Duckweed is a nutrient sink because it grows fast, if your duckweed is growing fast its because there are lots of nutrients in the water.

 

[Lyuba_buk]

Yes.


Not really, Duckweed is a nutrient sink because it grows fast, if your duckweed is growing fast its because there are lots of nutrients in the water.

Thanks!!!

 

[Lyuba_buk]

Yes.


Not really, Duckweed is a nutrient sink because it grows fast, if your duckweed is growing fast its because there are lots of nutrients in the water.

Nick, hi!
I have been sick for a several days , and i just fed my shrimps and my betta and didn’t do anything else with my tank. I haven’t made the construction you showed above.
Today I noticed that the amount of duckweed decreased . It almost disappeared actually.
Was it all sucked in my filter? (Filter still functions though)

What can i do to preserve leftovers? I like how it looks.
Or did my shrimps eat it? It sounds weird and i feed them twice a day.

I have also a question about my snail. If i need to post it somewhere else, please tell me where.
I bought some algae wafers to treat my shrimps, and gave some to my snails (i have three, two tiny and one big). I fed it to them on Tuesday and now i noticed that my snail looks like it’s covered in a bubble. Pic is attached. I have had snails for a while and i see something like this for the first time.
Also, it seems that there is a new snail in my tank. I don’t remember the type of my snails, but the guy in the pet store told me explicitly they don’t reproduce in the fresh water... now i am confused!

 

[King puff]

I have two things to say. One is that you should put the duckweed in a separate container and construct what nick made. Second, is that you should not feed you fish twice a day. One is maximum. The extra food can get under the substrate and raise ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite. This is not a huge problem if you have a lot of plants because they consume the nitrite. About the duckweed, Bettas can eat duckweed, he is probably the culprit. The snail I can see very well in the picture. Any chance for a better picture?

 

[Essjay]

...... if you have a lot of plants because they consume the nitrite.

A tiny correction - plants use ammonia, and nitrate if there is no ammonia present. They don't take up nitrite at all.