lake plant experiment

[Andy16]

until i can get real plants, i decided to do this. When i was musky fishing, i thought it would be cool to put a plant form the lake in my fish tank to see what happens. So when i pulled up the plants from off my lure, i took the best looking one and put it in the livewell. I planted it in my tank to see if it would live.

So it was really long, and the top part of the plant looked the plant looked healthy and teh bottom didnt. SO i cut off the top and planted it soem wehre else. It got knocked out of the sand by my fish because it had no roots so i took it out. Now i just have to bottom half. It doesnt look very good. But new leaves and buds are showing up really fast. One of the leaves doubled in size in one day, and a new bud has formed. Im not using any c02 fertilizers, and i have less then 1 wpg. I dont know why is is growing so fast. Just thought id share. Ill record to see if it grows or dies, and if it grows how fast.

[ianjoe]

Hey Andy, Im from wisconsin too!
Ive thought about doing that before as well. Couple things.
First of all you should probably keep those wild plants in a seperate tank for a while. You don't know what could harm your fish.
Let us know how they grow. Your putting them from cold water into a tropical scenario. Or are do you have them in a unheated tank?
I know there are some hygro species in the lakes up north where i am from. Most are considered noxious weeds.
Do you know the name of them?
Pictures?

peace out,
ian

[Matak]

Hey Andy :)
My first three species of plants were found-in-local-pond-and-river species. One did Ok, the other just fair but one is thriving and quite an interesting plant. I did a bleach dip on mine before submerging them into my tank though.

[Andy16]

IT is in a tropical tank, but the lake water is around the same temperature as my tank is this time of year so i dont think it got a temp shock. I dont have a camera(yet) so i cant post a pic, unfortunatly.
The bud i said i growing before has a leave that i can see now and the leave that i could see before looks like it is tow leaves now. The top is totally dead now it looks like. I dont now that name of the plant, but i rinsed it in water before i put it in my tank. All my fish look fine, I have had it for a week.

IANJOE: I got this plant out of pewaukee lake if you are interested. The bottom of that lake is soft, so my fishing lure pulled up the roots of that lant to, and didnt just tear it in half.


Matak: how did the plant survive bleah?

[Matak]

They turned pale, wilted but many came back. I can't remember the dip times for fine leaved plants as opposed to the times for coarser, thicker leaves (maybe someone could help here) but the concentration for the standard 5% bleach is 1 part bleach for 20 parts water, followed by a good rinsing to neutralize.

[Andy16]

I came home from my moutnain bike race to find all the dead leves gone and both my healthy bid and leaf gone. I need a light timer because they were off for 2 and a half days.

[TKOS]

I tried doing it this summer with some grasslike plants. They made it about a month before they died. Perhaps it is because they were used to a much richer soil than I could provide.

[ianjoe]

hey andy if you want to get serious and excited about local plants here is a great book. I believe that the author is from stevens point. link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/093231032X/qid=1064195826/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/102-7701884-7904142) . Ill be getting it soon myself. I know for a fact that we have tons of myriopyllum up north in rhinelander where im from.

ian

[Andy16]

Anywhere in that area near onieda county or vilas county is the place to be:D

I dont plan on using only native plants. THis is just a little experiement because i wanted mainly to see if it will survive with no co2 ferts or sufficient lighting. SO far it is going good except for the little die off it just had. I hope it recovers becuase i want to see what it looks like when it is all grown in.

[ianjoe]

yeah let us know.
I wonder if you ever got the plants going good in your aquarium, if a LFS would ever buy them from you.;)
I plan on having at least one tank someday with all native plants. I don't have much space in my little apartment in the cities to experiment though.

[Andy16]

i dont think my lfs would be interested in that. But hte leaves on my plant are growing back.