Unpopular Opinions (fish related)

[Sashimi]

I am confused about duckweed. I see them selling it at the pet store, yet people complain about it. I have never used it. What are the issues with duckweed? Overgrowth?

The fish love the duckweed! Especially Bettas and Gouramis (from my own experiences) but yes. It is a pain in the butt when you are doing water changes or they clog up your filter...they're very easy to grow, and provide shade and shelter and food, but after a few months of it in a few diff tanks, I had enough.

 

[GaryE]

Duckweed is a bit like dandelions - lovely at first, then in the puffball stage, less easy to enjoy. Okay, it never flowers, but it gets tired fast. It tends to take over and dim lighting, etc. Sometimes, it's a good thing, but mostly it's the fishtank version of an invasive weed.

 

[Colin_T]

Nothing wrong with Duckweed, I could barely grow enough to feed my rainbowfish.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Duckweed is the fishkeepers Marmite (or Vegemite for those downunder)

You either love it or loathe it, there is no middle road.

 

[Rxhart]

The fish love the duckweed! Especially Bettas and Gouramis (from my own experiences) but yes. It is a pain in the butt when you are doing water changes or they clog up your filter...they're very easy to grow, and provide shade and shelter and food, but after a few months of it in a few diff tanks, I had enough.

I see. Hadn’t thought of that.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I am confused about duckweed. I see them selling it at the pet store, yet people complain about it. I have never used it. What are the issues with duckweed? Overgrowth?

The biggest issue with duckweed is just how resilient it is. It's a pretty plant when sitting nicely on the surface, a good ammonia user, and a nice snack for any plant eating fish. But with any other plant, floating or otherwise, you can easily remove if you get tired of it or decide you don't like it for whatever reason. Not so with duckweed. It's irritating the way it easily blows down into the tank and gets caught all over everything, or clings to your skin any time you have to put your arm into the tank - those aspects bug a lot of keepers, since it's worse compared to any other floater. But even then, if someone found that aspect too irritating, if it was easy to just remove it all and get something else, it wouldn't be something people get so heated over!

Nope, what gets the duckweed haters (like me!) so angry with it is that once it's in a tank, it's SO HARD to get rid of it, once and for all. Those leaves are so teeny tiny, and they can seemingly rehydrate and come back to life even if they're dried out and hidden away somewhere. So you can try to remove it all, but it only takes one tiny missed leaf for it to suddenly start taking over again. Just one little leaf tucked away under the rim of the tank, on the lid, behind the heater, in your water change bucket or syphon, on a net you've used, caught up in the plants lower down could be anywhere... so in practice, you get some in your tank once, and can spend a year or more still trying to get rid of it all! I literally spent weeks removing every scrap of it I could find from all of my tanks and equipment, then another eight months or so removing each new gathering of tiny leaves that appeared each time they appeared, until I was finally free of it!

Then, having not seen a scrap of it in any of my tanks for months, it reappeared... from somewhere, but I've no idea where. It's sometimes nicknamed "the herpes of the hobby" for that reason. Once you've got it, there's no getting rid of it!

 

[betta4ever!]

I thought you were a Betta, if you were a pleco your name would be "pleco4ever"

I'm a pleco, but I've always wanted to be a Betta. Bettas are the best...

 

[GaryE]

I'm a pleco, but I've always wanted to be a Betta. Bettas are the best...

I feel awful having insulted you without knowing you were a pleco that had mastered internet use, but dreaming of being a fancy Betta is futile. They are awful vain characters - if you ever text back and forth with one, they are very shallow, and you get the impression they spend a lot of time showing off in front of mirrors, when they aren't lying in hammocks complaining about their hard lot in life. A bunch of narcissistic bug eating air breathers, if you ask me. And their personal hygiene? They think discussing fungus trapped in their folded fins is a fit subject for the dinner table.

 

[betta4ever!]

How dare you say this about Bettas!!!!!!

 

[betta4ever!]

https://images.app.goo.gl/JsEJGxh5UfW7gAgq9 That's what I'd like to be

https://images.app.goo.gl/BASYh3j817KE42y8A and that's what I am... A sad, bristlenose pleco...

 

[Kyshiara]

Aww I love bristlenoses!

 

[betta4ever!]

Aww I love bristlenoses!

I love the Betta on your pfp!

 

[Colin_T]

Duckweed is the fishkeepers Marmite (or Vegemite for those downunder)

You either love it or loathe it, there is no middle road.

They use Vegemite to catch rainbowfish up north. They put it in traps and the fish are lured to it but the chocodiles aren't. If you use fish food/ pellets to bait the traps, the chocodiles eat the traps.

 

[Kyshiara]

I love the Betta on your pfp!

Thank you! He was called blue but he died last august.

 

[betta4ever!]

Thank you! He was called blue but he died last august.

Sorry for your loss...