Do Mycorrhiza Have a Large Impact on Aquarium Plant Health?

[Mudminnow]

I've recently read two books that I found entirely fascinating: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake and The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso. In these books, the authors speak of the mind blowing symbiosis between plants and fungi. Apparently, mycorrhiza have been entangled into the lives of the vast majority of plants for as long as there have been plants. And, many plants struggle or even die without them.

So, might mycorrhiza be an important part of our aquarium plants' health? Should we be seeding our tanks with mycorrhiza?

Conversely, might our relatively sanitized aquariums (think baked soil products and tissue culture plants) be promoting weak, unadaptable plants? I've read this has happened with some farm plants. Production was pursued over adaptability, and many mycorrhizal relationships were lost in the process. The result has been plants that are far less adaptable and need much more fertilizer and care.

What do you think?

 

[BigManAquatics]

I certainly think it would be worth looking into more, or pursuing an experiment or two. I don't do live plants at the moment because i hate the idea of throwing fertilizers in the water. The fewer chemicals, the better, in my book.

Definitely an interesting thought to pursue, though.

 

[MacZ]

Mycorrhizas in Aquatic Plants

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304377006001707

Just the first two hits when looking for "aquatic mycorrhiza" via Google.

From what I know, it's mostly semi-aquatic swamp plants that have mycorrhiza, while true aquatic species usually don't. Evolutionary mycorrhiza made it possible for plants to settle terrestrial environments in the first place, firmly associating land plants with mycorrhiza.

To me this is just another argument for keeping the substrate in a tank untouched instead of vacuuming all the time.

 

[Mudminnow]

Mycorrhizas in Aquatic Plants

Arbuscular Mycorrhizae in association with aquatic and marshy plant species in Goa, India

Just the first two hits when looking for "aquatic mycorrhiza" via Google.

From what I know, it's mostly semi-aquatic swamp plants that have mycorrhiza, while true aquatic species usually don't. Evolutionary mycorrhiza made it possible for plants to settle terrestrial environments in the first place, firmly associating land plants with mycorrhiza.

To me this is just another argument for keeping the substrate in a tank untouched instead of vacuuming all the time.

I read these two abstracts. I get the feeling very little is known about mycorrhizal relationships in aquatic plants. The second study you found said 10 out of the 14 of the aquatic plants they studied had mycorrhizal partners. This is a relatively small sample, but it does seem to indicate a sizable percentage of aquatic plants might still need or be benefited by mycorrhiza.

I find this fascinating. I wonder if one could conduct some home experiments to find out more about this. Even if I wanted to (which I sort of do), I wouldn't have a clue how to find, isolate, or identify mycorrhiza. Plus, I wouldn't have any idea which species naturally pair together with other species of plants. I wonder if there is a risk of mismatching species, causing more harm than good.

 

[MacZ]

Even if I wanted to (which I sort of do), I wouldn't have a clue how to find, isolate, or identify mycorrhiza. Plus, I wouldn't have any idea which species naturally pair together with other species of plants. I wonder if there is a risk of mismatching species, causing more harm than good.

Honestly, just as with archeans and bacteria in the filter, the stuff is most likely already there and will appear on it's own. It is already on the plants. Over-zealous cleaning is a big problem. Many people dip their plants and are afraid of fungi or other stuff on them. Big mistake in my opinion. Looking for snails and their eggs or maybe planaria - ok. But disinfectants as many use them... terrible idea.

 

[Mudminnow]

Honestly, just as with archeans and bacteria in the filter, the stuff is most likely already there and will appear on it's own. It is already on the plants. Over-zealous cleaning is a big problem. Many people dip their plants and are afraid of fungi or other stuff on them. Big mistake in my opinion. Looking for snails and their eggs or maybe planaria - ok. But disinfectants as many use them... terrible idea.

This is an excellent point. Species do not exist in a vacuum. Removing all the microbes and such from our plants may do more harm than introducing a potential pest.

 

[MacZ]

This is an excellent point. Species do not exist in a vacuum. Removing all the microbes and such from our plants may do more harm than introducing a potential pest.

Yeah, well... it depends. There are pests that should be kept in check or better out of the tank. Planaria in a tank with inverts: Bad thing. But for a tank without inverts... Useless and distracting from far more important stuff.

 

[JustAFishServant]

Yeah, well... it depends. There are pests that should be kept in check or better out of the tank. Planaria in a tank with inverts: Bad thing. But for a tank without inverts... Useless and distracting from far more important stuff.

Gotta be honest, after 4 years of using live from various sources (seeds, Petco, LFS or CL), I have never gotten planaria - or algae for that reason. Snails, yes, but I welcome those cute lil' "pests". All I've ever done is wash them off and scrub any visible algae or detritus with my fingers.

I used peroxide once - though it didn't show any adverse effects, I'm constantly tiptoing around the fear that something - anything - will happen. I don't even remember which plants they are but the all of my tanks have snails

 

[MacZ]

Gotta be honest, after 4 years of using live from various sources (seeds, Petco, LFS or CL), I have never gotten planaria - or algae for that reason. Snails, yes, but I welcome those cute lil' "pests". All I've ever done is wash them off and scrub any visible algae or detritus with my fingers.

I used peroxide once - though it didn't show any adverse effects, I'm constantly tiptoing around the fear that something - anything - will happen. I don't even remember which plants they are but the all of my tanks have snails

I gave planaria only as a common example. I had none since 1994.

 

[TClare]

I read these two abstracts. I get the feeling very little is known about mycorrhizal relationships in aquatic plants. The second study you found said 10 out of the 14 of the aquatic plants they studied had mycorrhizal partners. This is a relatively small sample, but it does seem to indicate a sizable percentage of aquatic plants might still need or be benefited by mycorrhiza.

I find this fascinating. I wonder if one could conduct some home experiments to find out more about this. Even if I wanted to (which I sort of do), I wouldn't have a clue how to find, isolate, or identify mycorrhiza. Plus, I wouldn't have any idea which species naturally pair together with other species of plants. I wonder if there is a risk of mismatching species, causing more harm than good.

And some of the plants had different types of fungi from those found in terrestrial ecosystems, it would probably be very difficult to find the correct species to seed the tank with, I agree with what MacZ said, they are probably already there in an established planted aquarium that has not been too thoroughly cleaned. Also we shouldn’t forget that mycorrhyzal associations are symbiotic, the fungi help the plant to acquire nutrients (in terrstrial environments they are particularly important where soils are poor in nutrients, eg in most tropical rainforests where nutrients are lost quickly from the soil due to leaching from heavy rainfall), but in return the fungi take carbohydrates (products of photosynthesis) from the plants so if we provide nutrients by using fertilizers the trade-off might not be worth it?

 

[Mudminnow]

And some of the plants had different types of fungi from those found in terrestrial ecosystems, it would probably be very difficult to find the correct species to seed the tank with, I agree with what MacZ said, they are probably already there in an established planted aquarium that has not been too thoroughly cleaned. Also we shouldn’t forget that mycorrhyzal associations are symbiotic, the fungi help the plant to acquire nutrients (in terrstrial environments they are particularly important where soils are poor in nutrients, eg in most tropical rainforests where nutrients are lost quickly from the soil due to leaching from heavy rainfall), but in return the fungi take carbohydrates (products of photosynthesis) from the plants so if we provide nutrients by using fertilizers the trade-off might not be worth it?

You make an interesting point. If I recall correctly, at least one of those books I mentioned said plants give about 30% of all their sugars to their mycorrhizal partners. But, I also remember the claim that plants without mycorrhiza need more fertilizers. And, considering mycorrhiza can (among many other things) drill into rocks to get at the minerals or hunt nematodes for their juicy goodness, I suppose that makes sense.

I agree, in a tank environment, where we provide copious amounts of readily available nutrients via fertilizers, the presence of mycorrhiza may be an unnecessary nutrient sink. Still, after reading all the amazing things mycorrhiza can do for terrestrial plants (such as connect plants in a "wood wide web"), I wonder what they may do for aquatic plants. Without mycorrhiza in our tanks, we may have spoiled, deaf, and dumb plants (so to speak). ...But, I don't know if that matters outside of the wild.

 

[TClare]

The whole subject is very interesting, I had a quick look at some publications las night, and it looks like very little work had been done on mycorrhizae in aquatic plants, just descriptions of what types of mycorrhizae were found and in which plants, but nothing really about their ecology or importance.

 

[Platytude]

Fascinating subject! I have 100-ish potted roses, and incorporate mycorrhizae in all of the planting mixes. Thanks for posting.