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Duckweed (Lemna minor) for Guppy Floating Plants FREE Shipping


Duckweed (Lemna minor)

Buy Lemna minor for guppy aquariums


Duckweed floating plants are great for guppy fish aquariums. Lemna minor or the common duckweed works well as a water purifier. It can help to control algae, and some fish, like my guppies, seem to like to play in it, check out the video below. Some fish even like to eat it. You do have to thin it out every so often so it doesn't take over. And this plant adds color and texture to any aquarium.

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Growing Instructions:


Upon receiving your duckweed immediately take it out of the packaging and place it in non-chlorinated water with a pH between 5.5 and 7.0. There are multiple options for fertilizing your duckweed such as fish waste, compost or pond plant food. Duckweed needs sufficient light (whether fluorescent or sunlight) to live healthy and reproduce at the maximum rate. Place your duckweed where it will get at least 8 hours of light per day. However, if grown outdoors some shade may be required in the heat of summer in southern states. If provided ideal conditions your duckweed will reproduce extremely rapidly. You will always have duckweed to feed you fish or use as a natural filter.

How to handle duckweeds?


Duckweed plants are delicate and easily damaged by fingers, forceps and other instruments. Individual plants and small colonies may be picked up and moved without damage using a bacteriological loop. Just place the loop in the medium beneath the plant and lift up. This technique also facilitates handling axenic cultures. To collect larger quantities of plants, use lightweight screening material to net the plants from below. Fiberglass screen material is available in hardware stores. Alternatively, fabric stores sell strong, light-weight netting used for making veils. Duckweed roots are sticky and will adhere to screens and nets, so it may be necessary to gently scrape the plants off the net with a knife or a thin spatula.

How to grow duckweeds?


Growing duckweeds is like growing any other plant. Moderate conditions of temperature and light and a liquid medium with the necessary nutrients are essential for good growth. Fortunately, duckweeds adapt well to a wide range of conditions and are easy to grow.

Duckweeds can be grown in the pond water from which they were collected in open containers. It is important to replace the water frequently, since evaporation will result in concentration of salts. Using open containers prevents overheating if you place the containers outside or in a sunny window. See below for more about lighting duckweeds for the best growth.

In nature duckweeds grow in water from many sources and compositions. They can be grown in artificial pond water or in diluted aquaculture media, such as Hoagland's solution. It is important to provide a source of chelated iron (included in the recommended synthetic media) and to adjust the pH to the optimal range.

It is important to keep your duckweed cultures clean. If you collect fresh duckweed specimens from nature, the water will contain a variety of other organisms. These will include bacteria, fungi, algae, protozoa, and even small multicellular animals and insect larvae. You can clean up your duckweed cultures by transferring the plants individually to clean fresh water. Remove damaged and aged (yellow or white) fronds from your cultures as they appear.

Native populations of duckweeds may be mixtures with varying genetic compositions. For serious work it is advisable to start cultures from a single clone. This will help increase uniformity for experimental work. It is easy to clone duckweeds.



References

Lemna minor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Common Duckweed « AQUAPLANT
Lemna minor (Common Duckweed) IUCN Red List
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