Re: [APD] pesky duckweed

["Berne Kairunas" <berne at choiceaquariums_com>]

> Mike Smith asked if some fish eat duckweed.  One of the best fish for 
getting rid of it is just regular Austrailian Rainbows especialy the 
Boesemani type. I actualy keep a 10 gal tank set up to raise duckweed 
just to feed my rainbow tank.  They think it's candy and act like a 
bunch of pirahna going after ir.  Occastionally I'll get it in my other 
tanks and I just throw a couple rainbows in to clean it up...Jim
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Just as a side note - if you're looking for somethign besides a fish, i 
have noticed that Golden Mystery Snails (Pomacea Bridgesii - if i 
spelled that right anyway) absolutely LOVE duckweed.  Its the only 
plant matter (of higher order plants anyway) that i've seen them eat 
while its alive.  

I stumbled across this accidently about 2 years ago while putting a few 
into a 10gal that i was using for an anubias holding bin.  It was 
overgrown with duckweed (most anubias are commercially grown emmersed 
and the vats are overgrown with duckweed so it comes in on the pots) 
and i had a little green algae on the glass that i wanted a natural 
clean up crew for.  Sure enough, within about 2 weeks the 3 snails had 
wiped the tank clean of duckweed!

BTW- another side bonus of these snails - they LOVE dead plant matter 
(as well as algae).  This works out nicely if you have a lot of stems 
or plants hat are well established and just shedding old or light 
restricted leaves down on the base of stem plants for example.

*tosses a couple pennies in the jar*

-- 

-Berne Kairunas
Aquatic Plant Specialist
Choice Aquariums Sales Team


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