Ugh, duckweed

[Essjay]

Keep an eye out every day for pieces of the weed. One day you'll realise you haven't seen any for a while. Then it's a case of making sure the tank is not re-infested every time you buy a plant, fish, snail, whatever.

 

[sharkweek178]

I hate to point this out but........


circled in red
View attachment 316759

This is where a pair of tweezers come in handy to remove the offending plants before they can multiply

I'm definitely seeing some still in there. I didn't think I was going to be lucky enough to get it all on the first try.

 

[Ellie Potts]

View attachment 316722

It would survive.

 

[Rocky998]

Me personally, I dont think I'd mind having duckweed...

 

[sharkweek178]

Me personally, I dont think I'd mind having duckweed...

My fish need access to the surface. That's my main concern. I don't want it to overrun the tank so that they can't get surface air. My plant corrals work on the salvinia minima, mostly. The duckweed laughs at my plant corrals.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

My fish need access to the surface. That's my main concern. I don't want it to overrun the tank so that they can't get surface air. My plant corrals work on the salvinia minima, mostly. The duckweed laughs at my plant corrals.

Have you tried using a wider tubing for the corrals? So the duckweed would have to climb a bit higher to invade?

 

[sharkweek178]

Have you tried using a wider tubing for the corrals? So the duckweed would have to climb a bit higher to invade?

I have feeder rings that are four tubes bound together and the duckweed still finds a way.

 

[NearMeBettas]

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I have feeder rings that are four tubes bound together and the duckweed still finds a way.

I don't know what you mean, but this is what I mean...

I wonder if you could melt the ends together to make a ring or am I being stupid?

 

[Ellie Potts]

I don't know what you mean, but this is what I mean...View attachment 316791I wonder if you could melt the ends together to make a ring or am I being stupid?

I used to keep duckweed and tried to hold it by some THICK tubes. It never worked. No matter how big the guards.
duckweed can look good in a tank, but it does need to be scooped out almost daily in my experience.

 

[sharkweek178]

I used to keep duckweed and tried to hold it by some THICK tubes. It never worked. No matter how big the guards.
duckweed can look good in a tank, but it does need to be scooped out almost daily in my experience.

Considering that duckweed can work its way into a completely separate tank, I don't have faith in feeder rings or plant corrals keeping it under control.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Where is the flamethrower emoji...

 

[Rocky998]

Where is the flamethrower emoji...

 

[Byron]

I have been amazed at some of this thread. One would think duckweed was some sort of poison that will kill all the fish if just one or two plants are present.

This is a quite amazing plant for removing ammonia/ammonium. It has its uses. I had it in my 10g for several years, this was the tank in which the pygmy cories regularly spawned. I removed some of it every week just to keep it in balance, as I had other floaters and chain swords below. It is incredibly easy to control.

I used a very small fish net, about 2 inches square. During the water change maintenance, I scooped out the tiny plants with the small net. It spread to the other tanks on the water changer obviously, but I used the small fish net and removed all of the few plants that did. If I missed a couple, as I sometimes did, I got them the next week. This was not difficult nor troublesome.

If you have vegetarian fish, many of them will relish duckweed.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Just having some fun with it @Byron, as good as it is at its job its still a nuisance if you don't want it! It doesn't take NO for an answer