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Let's talk aquatic plants - any to be avoided for RES tank?

PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2012 11:41 am
by elwray
I've got several tanks in addition to my 75G RES tank with ATBA, most of which are planted freshwater. The trouble with the planted tanks is that the growth rate requires frequent trimming, and I'm running out of space in the other tanks to transplant cuttings back and forth. I don't have anyone local to give the extra plants to, but I'd like to avoid just throwing them in the trash if possible!

Are there any commonly kept freshwater aquatic plants that are a big "no-no" for a RES tank? I understand whatever I put in there may/will get eaten, and that's fine. I'd rather have the plants become turtle food than garbage, unless of course the plants are known to be toxic to RES!

I know anacharis is safe. I was hoping to be able to throw some Brazilian pennywort in as well. And I was thinking about trying to cover the ramp to the ATBA in either java or christmas moss - sort of a emersed/submerged setting.

Thoughts?

Re: Let's talk aquatic plants - any to be avoided for RES ta

PostPosted: Fri May 04, 2012 11:51 pm
by steve
I'm not aware of specific bad plants and there is not much info on their nutritional content. I think the main features people would look for are if they are native and how they grow, Any rooted plant will be ripped up in the first few minutes.

Re: Let's talk aquatic plants - any to be avoided for RES ta

PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 9:17 pm
by pdud
Interesting thread. I am looking into adding aquatic plants as well.

I see water lilys are a highly recommended source of food.
Only problem is there seem to be so many to choose from!

Here is a direct link I have been looking at.
http://www.aquariumplants.com/SearchRes ... PRODSEARCH

Is there any that I can not consider? Is it okay for the turtles to eat the flowers?

Thank you,
Phil

Re: Let's talk aquatic plants - any to be avoided for RES ta

PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 10:03 pm
by VeipaCray
Water lily is expensive if you're buying it just to be eaten. Water lettuce and other floating plants are a much less expensive alternative.

Re: Let's talk aquatic plants - any to be avoided for RES ta

PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 10:35 pm
by elwray
Yeah, I wasn't really worried about them being uprooted/eaten ... I just wanted to avoid throwing the extra plants away. So far the RES has eaten brazilian pennywort, amazon frogbit, and anacharis. He's torn up a bit of java moss, but seems to have lost interest in it - I tied some on to the ramp to the ATBA to try and grow.