Frogbit disappeared overnight??

I have a 40 gallon tank with 12 amanos, 12 neocaridinas, and 20 ember tetras. I have quite a number of plants and among them is Amazonian Frogbit. I got it a month or so ago and it has done quite well, expanding quite a bit from the small culture cup I first got. My shrimp love it and often go for rides eating algae off the underside and roots as they go.

This morning I woke up to something that seems physically impossible - all of my Frogbit has vanished. I had a couple monte carlo bushes that floated up and I hadn't gotten to yet, but they were still there. Everything is normal, it is just like the Frogbit has selectively vanished overnight. There is no trace of it in or around the tank and I have no idea what happened. Does anyone have any idea how this could even happen? There has to be an explanation, I just have no idea what it is.

 

My tetras eat my frogbit roots bare if I am away for a day to feed them...
Well shrimp could have eaten some too but I don't know much about keeping them.

 

The tetras are well fed and have never shown any interest in nibbling on the frogbit. Also, it's not just the roots, the entire leaf structures are gone.

 

I'd have to assume that there's some sort of human intervention here. If there's no remain of any frogbit, someone probably removed them. Do you live with anyone or anything?

 

I'd have to assume that there's some sort of human intervention here. If there's no remain of any frogbit, someone probably removed them. Do you live with anyone or anything?

I can rule that out. I live with close family and they are as perplexed as I am.

 

I can rule that out. I live with close family and they are as perplexed as I am.

In that case I have no idea. Is there any leftover frogbit, or is it just completely gone?

 

In that case I have no idea. Is there any leftover frogbit, or is it just completely gone?

Amazingly after searching all I could find were one or two small leaves that had fallen off of the plants previously and I just hadn't gotten to fishing out yet.

 

frogbit: my shrimp, ramshorn snails and guppies eat it

as do my silver dollar fish and large catfish - I toss extra when I have too much, lasts about a day, very young tender plants

if you have any left, grow it out in a bowl to propagate and only put in tank when mature & have enough left over to grow out more.

I'm growing some outside and the roots are insanely long, but in my fish tanks, they are nearly bare due to snails and fish.

I think only the bettas don't nibble on it.

 

frogbit: my shrimp, ramshorn snails and guppies eat it

as do my silver dollar fish and large catfish - I toss extra when I have too much, lasts about a day, very young tender plants

if you have any left, grow it out in a bowl to propagate and only put in tank when mature & have enough left over to grow out more.

I'm growing some outside and the roots are insanely long, but in my fish tanks, they are nearly bare due to snails and fish.

I think only the bettas don't nibble on it.

I agree that they would probably enjoy nibbling on it, I just can't believe that they could go from never doing so to eating all of my grown frogbit overnight with no traces left behind.

For reference here is some of what it looked like:



I know there has to be an explanation, but honestly this case is so strange that I don't know if I will ever truly know what happened.

 

I had about the same as you but this picture is what i came into after being gone for a daytrip.. I have rummynose and black neons which i have both seen nibbling on my frogbits.. I used to have salvinia too but it got eaten as well Do you feed any veggies regurlaly? I give mine boiled spinach/zucchini/broccoli once a week

frogbit: my shrimp, ramshorn snails and guppies eat it

as do my silver dollar fish and large catfish - I toss extra when I have too much, lasts about a day, very young tender plants

if you have any left, grow it out in a bowl to propagate and only put in tank when mature & have enough left over to grow out more.

I'm growing some outside and the roots are insanely long, but in my fish tanks, they are nearly bare due to snails and fish.

I think only the bettas don't nibble on it.

How do you get them to grown in a bowl? mine just rot when I tried to do just that to some of them.. I add a netting under my plants in the tank to give them time to grow back when needed

 

I had about the same as you but this picture is what i came into after being gone for a daytrip.. I have rummynose and black neons which i have both seen nibbling on my frogbits.. I used to have salvinia too but it got eaten as well Do you feed any veggies regurlaly? I give mine boiled spinach/zucchini/broccoli once a week


How do you get them to grown in a bowl? mine just rot when I tried to do just that to some of them.. I add a netting under my plants in the tank to give them time to grow back when needed

Fascinating! I feed an algae wafer (they get an hour or so to munch and then I take it out) every other day and have tried blanched broccoli and zucchini. They had zero interest in the zucchini, but they have some interest in the broccoli which I have left them to nibble overnight. I adore my shrimp and if they did somehow eat all the frogbit then I just hope they had a yummy snack lol.

 

frogbit: my shrimp, ramshorn snails and guppies eat it

as do my silver dollar fish and large catfish - I toss extra when I have too much, lasts about a day, very young tender plants

if you have any left, grow it out in a bowl to propagate and only put in tank when mature & have enough left over to grow out more.

I'm growing some outside and the roots are insanely long, but in my fish tanks, they are nearly bare due to snails and fish.

I think only the bettas don't nibble on it.

Even though they may nibble, I still don't think the entire top could've just disappeard overnight. It's too drastic of a change, and if it was that sporadic, a lot more of us would've been reporting this issue.

 

Maybe check in your filter? If you have a skimmer maybe it went below water level and sucked it all up??

 

I can rule that out. I live with close family and they are as perplexed as I am.

Do you have a dog or cat in the house that can get to it?

 

Maybe check in your filter? If you have a skimmer maybe it went below water level and sucked it all up??

I have a Fluval U3 Canister filter. There really isn't any room for things to get in, but I did check just in case (they weren't there).

Do you have a dog or cat in the house that can get to it?

Nope, I don't have a cat, just a Sheltie. She is too small and shy to go up the large staircase on her own let alone jump five feet in the air, flip open a glass lid, and hoover up the frogbit. If she did though I would be pretty impressed with her remarkable acrobatic prowess lol

 

I agree that they would probably enjoy nibbling on it, I just can't believe that they could go from never doing so to eating all of my grown frogbit overnight with no traces left behind.

For reference here is some of what it looked like:
View attachment 847895View attachment 847896
I know there has to be an explanation, but honestly this case is so strange that I don't know if I will ever truly know what happened.

something is definitely eating it though and pretty heavily.

I just took some out of my outside tub, peroxide dipped it for my tanks.

the root system is easily 5-6 inches long and very lush.

my ramshorn snails do a lot of damage

those same frogbit I just added this morning to my 20 long tank, I found 6 ramshorns on 1 plant just now.

imo - they either the plant 'melted' or something ate it

feed them snello ( snail jello) or broccoli to avoid eating your plants

I had about the same as you but this picture is what i came into after being gone for a daytrip.. I have rummynose and black neons which i have both seen nibbling on my frogbits.. I used to have salvinia too but it got eaten as well Do you feed any veggies regurlaly? I give mine boiled spinach/zucchini/broccoli once a week


How do you get them to grown in a bowl? mine just rot when I tried to do just that to some of them.. I add a netting under my plants in the tank to give them time to grow back when needed

window and i use tank water in bowl , but this way it's isolated from my snails

 

something is definitely eating it though and pretty heavily.

I just took some out of my outside tub, peroxide dipped it for my tanks.

the root system is easily 5-6 inches long and very lush.

my ramshorn snails do a lot of damage

those same frogbit I just added this morning to my 20 long tank, I found 6 ramshorns on 1 plant just now.

imo - they either the plant 'melted' or something ate it

feed them snello ( snail jello) or broccoli to avoid eating your plants

window and i use tank water in bowl , but this way it's isolated from my snails

window and i use tank water in bowl , but this way it's isolated from my snails

Ya, at this point that does seem to be the only possibility for what happened despite how improbable it seems. On the point of growing frogbit in a bowl by the window, I actually gave a bit to my partner a few weeks ago to try growing that way as she loves plants and particularly enjoyed watching the frogbit. It did grow, but, unsurprisingly, it is now just covered in green hair algae. How do you do the window method while avoiding algae buildup?

 

try some tubs outsideto grow it out

this is my frogbit after 3 weeks or so outside

I soaked it in peroxide + water, maybe a teaspoon? for 1/2 gallon for 15 minutes, rinse ( to clean before using in my tanks today)

I used aquascape dirt outside ( $15.00 a bag, I used 4 in total over 4 tubs) , very expensive but as you can see by plant growth it was worth it imo.

the guppies in tub eat all the bugs, so plant growth was good and less hi-jackers ( because again guppies eat bugs in tub water)

I added many to my planted tanks, about 22 frogbit in total

This is natural root system. i achieved 4 inch long before in a no snail tank a few years back. now, I have no root system.

I may go through tanks after summer, boil decor & rocks, scrub tanks and start over. Dump and do no reuse my gravel. ( keep snail vacuum separate form no snail vacuum too)

I love ramshorns, but they eat and eat and eat. ppl say they are safe but even after my mystery snails are gone ( only 1 left) my plants do not thrive as they should. they are eating the leafs off some really nice plants I have. I bought the plants for fish, snails were a whim so sort of over it.

i have paid easily 500.00 in plants over 4 years and have minimal results.

I like snails, but I'm sort of done.

Also, as soon as put the frogbit from outside, my huge female mollie came over to nibble

i fed her and she stopped ( she's huge)

Ya, at this point that does seem to be the only possibility for what happened despite how improbable it seems. On the point of growing frogbit in a bowl by the window, I actually gave a bit to my partner a few weeks ago to try growing that way as she loves plants and particularly enjoyed watching the frogbit. It did grow, but, unsurprisingly, it is now just covered in green hair algae. How do you do the window method while avoiding algae buildup?

It's right in my kitchen and I could see it multiple times a day

every other day -I'd just add 'dirty water' from my 38 gallon 2 feet away and then top off that tank using a betta water change tablet, break off a piece. the dirty tank water gave the plants the extra nutrients it needed + some plant food 1x a week.

even growing out my lotus seeds like 2 feet from my back door slider, I had slime in the glass bowl but no green algae