Plant ID Please

[SparKy697]

I don't know if you can tell from this photo or not. I seem to have these little leaves floating on the top of my tank. They kind of resemble a 3 leaf clover but are not symmetrical. They lay flat on the water surface and have all sprouted roots that hang straight down. I drew a black box around one of the plants in question. They are hung up on some of the plants that are at the surface so they look like they are part of that plant.

Plants I have in the tank are:

Ludwigia repens
rotala indica
ludwigia brevipes
bacopa caroliniana
micro sword
cabomba
a couple stalks of anacherus (sp?)
anubius

 

[dapellegrini]

Is this it:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N

 

[SparKy697]

Hey, that's it! Where the heck did I get that?
I read all kinds of bad things about that stuff, but it looks kind of cool.

 

[dapellegrini]

It is a common hitchhiker, much like snails... It is an interesting plant, but IME very invasive and difficult to get rid of once it is established. It's not hard to control, just a frequent clean-up hassle. If you let it get out of hand it will cover the entire surface of your tank.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Probably came in with plants. It's quite common.

 

[SparKy697]

It looks kind of cool but I don't think I want things that block light to the other plants. I'll try to clean it all up this weekend on PWC day.

Thanks guys.

 

[dapellegrini]

Here it is taking over a lake:

 

[SparKy697]

OMG

I guess my little tank doesn't stand a chance. Out it goes.

 

[WaterPond]

dont ever let duckweed out into local waterways too. It is really hardy and can survive winters. I live on the st. clair river (goes into lake huron) and we get it washing up on the shore. There is another small waterways called the sydenham river, which is totally covered with it, all because it was released by people growing it in their ponds and aquariums. the fish like it though

 

[newfound77951]

I have that stuff too....i clean it out with a net. It's bigger than the normal duckweed, though, by a lot, so I'm not sure it's the same species, but it still grows like mad.