Duck Weed -Our Old Friend

[gwand]

Food and fuel that farms itself: Genome sequences of five duckweed species reveal basis for unique plant traits

Under the right conditions, duckweed essentially farms itself. Wastewater, ponds, puddles, swamps—you name it. If there's enough sunlight and carbon dioxide, the aquatic plant can grow freely. But that's not all that makes it intriguing. Packed inside duckweed's tiny fronds is enormous potential...

phys.org

 

[GaryE]

It's getting really hard to hate things. Life is simply amazing, even if it's not necessarily welcome in your fishtank. I'm plagued by duckweed, and remove pounds of it every 2 weeks. I compost some, and add some to plant pots. My late turtles used to feed on it, for 40 years or so.

But it is interesting. It can be a test kit, if you come to understand what differing root lengths have to say, and for some fish, it's great food.

I hate pond snails, but respect them. Parasites are wondrous creatures. Bacteria? We live in THEIR world. Fungus? Beyond cool.

I never looked at these things til I allowed myself to drift into the world of aquarium science.

 

[Innesfan]

I've always kept at least one large tank of goldfish. Aside from enjoying them, they are my duckweed-control team. And they love the stuff.

 

[MaloK]

I had floating plants in the past...

For me they are all always farming their selves... I left a 5 gallons go 8 months and there was only 5 inch left of space in the bottom. I had to cut cut and cut.

With slow normal plants I pulled a couple leaves in the last year.

 

[davros]

I can't keep it alive...

 

[seangee]

I can't keep it alive...

You do realise talk like that won’t make you many friends here

 

[fishorama]

@CassCats & I were recently discussing people eating duckweed as a protein & other nutrient source. I'll let her go first, lol.

I have it in 2 tanks. It got much worse when I use prefilter sponges...but I don't have to clean the filters as often. I kind of like it when it gets stuck in the java moss along the back tank wall, almost like hemianthus. Luckily my husband often scoops out the floating stuff, it makes lovely compost

 

[CassCats]

I'm not facing hard enough grocery bills yet to start harvesting my duckweed for my own eating. I'd imagine it'd taste somewhat grassy or earthy.

I have considered drying it out, powdering it up, and then finding a way to either make it into a gelatin food or a flake or pellet type food for the fish lol I'd bet it could make good pleco food if made in a way they could actually eat it

 

[Oldspartan]

I know this is unnatural. I have come to dislike aquarium plants. They add to much manual maintenance in my short experience. I will keep a few in some of our tanks but as of last week I have began to toss them into the pond. Live or die out there is on them.

As I remove them, I am adding high quality silk and vinyl depending on what I want the thing to do, stay upright, or gently move within the flow. Our second priority is aesthetic; it comes in only behind health of the fish. Good quality imitations meet that criteria with only the occasional big cleaning that we do on a schedule anyway.

An antithesis? Perhaps so. However at our age we try to be efficient and artificials meet that need, (for us).