The attached photo is a group of small plants floating in a cup of water. Each adult plant is smaller than a dime. They are in a community tank and are very attractive to neocardinia shrimp breeding in the tank. But there are way too many plants. I plan to get rid of them, but first, what species are these small plants? TYIA, Bruce
What species are these small plants?
It looks like frogbit. Frogbit has smooth leaves, while other similar looking floaters have textured, "fuzzy" leaves.
Cristy, Thank you. I trust your expertise on all things aquarium. However, I thought that Frogbit gets larger. Could this be a different variety than what I had in the past?
Frogbit will stay smaller if it doesn't have all the light and nutrients it needs. In a pond it gets very big.
Sold some fish, snails and plants to Chicos. John Mangan looked at plant and opined probably not frogbit. Where are you GWAPAites? What is this?
why does he think it's not frogbit?
I believe it was combo of color, texture and size. There is an LED fixture at the top f the aquarium so there is a decent amount of light. I use a general purpose fertilizer, such as Flourish, periodically but not often.
Maybe I can't see texture in the photo, but frogbit color and size varies with conditions. Yours looks like it's lacking macronutrients.
There are a couple different species in the Limnobium genus. Might be a US native variety rather than the more commonly sold Amazon type.
Thanks Fish Folk. It is actually quite a nice little floater. Red on the underside. I will try to save some to pass along in the club sometime after it is safe for more interaction.
Wait... red on the bottom is a key detail you left out! It must be Red Root Floater (Phyllanthus fluitans). The leaves also have a velvety feel, not smooth like frogbit. It can get bright red roots, but that depends on conditions.
Here is a photo of the floater underside. Still skeptical about b Red Root Floater, which I have had in the past. There is also 1 upside down plant in the original photo.