miraloma

I wanted to get some floating plants for my tanks so I got a bag of duckweed. After I put them in the tanks, I realized that I might have way too much.
1. They are covering the surface completely.
2. Plants are getting pushed into the tank by the water outlet from the filter. They are floating around the entire tank really messing up the view.
3. They are covering my filter intake.
4. They are sticking to anything and everything coming out of the tank, like my hand and arms. How do I do a water change without getting all messy?

Short of netting them out, what can I do? Will my fish and shrimp eventually eat them? I have rainbow (bosemani, neon, celebes, furcata and signifer), guppy, platy, molly, betta, otocinclus, corydora, shrimps (cherry, amano and glass) and snails (zebra, briggs, ramshorn and MTS). Are there other fish I should get to help eat the duckweed?

Allie

Duckweed is a pain in the but with the hang on back filters. I can't keep it here, my angelfish are either eating it or the duckweed isn't happy here.

joy613

If you want a fish that eats duckweed you would have to get a tank for goldfish. I net out my floating plants when I get to many, and compost them.

platy ben

Duckweed is made for ponds because pond fish eat duckeed so it never covers a pond aslong as there are fish in it, it shouldnt be kept in an aquarium, one piece of duckweed weed can turn into 100 pieces in a month or so, i would advise removing it all and buying a different type of floating plant

Chief_waterchanger

We keep duckweed in our tanks intentionally and enjoy doing so, but I know that we are in the minority. We are more conserned with functional tanks rather than show tanks, so that may be part of the reason that it benefits us so much.

I put duckweed in the homemade fishfood I make. I grind it in the blender with all the other things that go into the food. It works well for keeping the water clear of algae, because it sucks up the nutrients in the water that would otherwise contribute to algae blooms, but if you don't like it simply net it out and either make a fishfood with it or as previously mentioned, add to the compost heap.

Slug

I'm curious, could grinding it up actually sprout and propagate it more in the tank? Or start it in a tank that has yet to be infested?

Chief_waterchanger

I dunno.

I've not seen any come from the food I make, but that is probably because it includes freezing the food to get a solid shape.