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Monster Frogbit and the Mysterious Plant


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I bought some Frogbit from my local fish store today. I have bought frogbit from them a few months ago, but Miso (my betta) loves to knock the long roots off causing it to struggle. My new frogbit is HUGE! It was grown in another customer's fish pond and it's leaves are about the size of a 50 cent coin! More importantly, the roots are thick and stronger. My hope is it can withstand Miso snuggling it. Currently, I have the frogbit in two one gallon size Mount Olive pickle jars I use for water changes. I plan to rinse the frogbit tomorrow morning in fresh/tap water before putting some into my tank. Should I treat my tank with a dose of plant food? (Aqueon brand)

Stats: 3 gallon tank, no CO2, one koi betta, two anubias plants, a tiny busephlandria and small patches of frogbit. 

The Mysterious Plant. In the handful of frogbit that I purchased today, there was a hitchhiker - a long stemmed piece of plant with tiny roots and sporadic leafy offshoots. (See photo) What is it? 

IMG_20221108_002234640.jpg

IMG_20221108_002408872.jpg

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On 11/8/2022 at 7:01 AM, Confetto said:

I bought some Frogbit from my local fish store today. I have bought frogbit from them a few months ago, but Miso (my betta) loves to knock the long roots off causing it to struggle. My new frogbit is HUGE! It was grown in another customer's fish pond and it's leaves are about the size of a 50 cent coin! More importantly, the roots are thick and stronger. My hope is it can withstand Miso snuggling it. Currently, I have the frogbit in two one gallon size Mount Olive pickle jars I use for water changes. I plan to rinse the frogbit tomorrow morning in fresh/tap water before putting some into my tank. Should I treat my tank with a dose of plant food? (Aqueon brand)

Stats: 3 gallon tank, no CO2, one koi betta, two anubias plants, a tiny busephlandria and small patches of frogbit. 

The Mysterious Plant. In the handful of frogbit that I purchased today, there was a hitchhiker - a long stemmed piece of plant with tiny roots and sporadic leafy offshoots. (See photo) What is it? 

IMG_20221108_002234640.jpg

IMG_20221108_002408872.jpg

Sorry, but it's practically impossible to tell what plant it may be when all you can see are a couple of titchy leaves! Maybe Hygrophilia Difformis? Plant it and see what happens!

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I suspect your frogbit is actually from the same cultivar as the old one. (Did your local aquarist maybe also get his original plants from the LFS? What about the LFS's plant wholesaler?) What makes frogbit really take off is some type of full spectrum lighting, good fertilizer, and not having an inquisitive fish knock off the roots its feeding from. The new clumps have had that. Full spectrum in the form of the sun on its pond. Good fertilizer because most pond fish are goldfish or koi varieties and making fertilizer is kind of what they do best. So, really just making sure the roots are semi-protected is the missing element. I have to trim the roots of my frogbit, because otherwise there's just a screen of green and yellow in my 20G's mid-water. Too short, and the plant dies back a bit. Maybe improve your lighting a bit to check if that helps with the growth over a month or so. Bettas are also not poop factories on the same level as a goldfish, some fertilizer would be good, but don't go hog wild. Maybe dose on the same schedule you use for water changes, but be prepared to dial it back. You want to add just enough that the plant has time to absorb it all before the next water change. Too much is like pouring that liquid fert right down the drain.

 

That second plant? 90% sure if the frogbit came from an aquarist's pond, then it's a submerged hitchhiker from the easy to grow pond varieties. Looks a bit like a hornwort that's maybe seen a bit too much love from some goldfish or plecos. I'd hit up a pond plant distributor and browse through their submerged plant pictures for a bit, see if something looks like your leaves. Those stems are pretty bare, but that can happen if it's trying to grow out from under some floating plants, or the fish are showing it too much love.

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I threw some Elodea/Anacharis in the pond this spring.  The pond grown plant size is almost 3 times the size of the aquarium plants mainly due to the quality of the light. The pond is plant only.  I suspect that is the case for your Frogbit.  The mystery plant could be Hornwort.  You could ask the LFS if they sell it or check to see if there are more mystery plants in their tanks. A free plant is a free plant!

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Here's a better photo of Mystery Plant after reverse respiration in Seltzer water. I trimmed the extra long stem so it would better fit in my nano tank. Not knowing if this is a rhizome or a stem, I used a suction cup and placed every thing just of a bove the gravel.

Now, we wait and see.

The monster frogbit is HUGE compared to the original batch! With all this vegetation in my tank, I'm hoping there's enough bio-load to maintain all this loveliness.

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Edited by Confetto
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Your mystery plant looks to me most like parrot’s feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum).  You’ll be able to tell better if you can get it to grown in a bit.  It’s not allowed to be sold in some states since it can be invasive.  It’s very pretty, though, so if it takes off in your tank, just appreciate it.  I think it likes fairly high light like a lot of stem plants.

Your frogbit won’t likely maintain such large leaves indoors unless you have really strong light plus good fertilizer dosing regimen.  Mine grows much bigger outdoors than indoors with my relatively average tank lights.

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