View Full Version : Poll! Salt Vs. Fresh, Fastest Growing Weeds!
OK not really a poll, so popcorn some answers. What do you think is the fastest growing plant you've ever seen, fresh or salt? Personally, after years of freshwater plant tanks, I tried my hand in saltier waters and was amazed, nay, frightened by the rate that Caulerpa prolifera grew.
OrionGirl
12-27-2004, 12:49 PM
:) Xenia. Caulerpa only thrived in one tank, for a brief while--had to take out a 1 gallon baggie full every 2 weeks to keepit from filling the tank. Now that the system is split up and the caulerpa i under lower light in a FO, it's not very impressive. The xenia, on the other hand, under MH, is truly a weed. In FW, the fastest growing plant I ever had was duckweed--that stuff doubles overnight!
saltyc
12-27-2004, 3:14 PM
:OT: (sort of)
Funny you should mention this-there was a show on PBS a week or two ago about a new macroalgae that is growing in the Mediterranean Sea-absolutely wants to take everything over and the usual algae eaters either won't touch it, or else they die after eating too much of it! Some of the scientists wanted to try to kill it off a bit, so it wouldn't kill off native species and the main lab/government agency in charge of the Med said no. Didn't get a chance to watch all of it myself, but it was very interesting.
You'd think they'd use their brains and market that stuff at herbal food shops as "Mediterrannean Spinach".
Orion, I wish I had that problem with Xenia. I've got 80 watts of PC over a 15 nano and my xenia frag just sit there, waving at me, not really getting any bigger....... but otherwise healthy looking....
The fastest growing freshwater plant I ever kept was a tie between italian val (in inches AND in runner sprouts) and red cabomba. Both were in the same tank and i had to prune it every 30 minutes or else shepherds would show up trying to graze their sheep in my living room.
FL Knifemaker
12-27-2004, 8:55 PM
I would say fresh water Hydrilla!! It chokes off many of the best bass lakes down here :mad: You can almost see it growing.
We had the same problem here in SC in the santee-cooper lakes. The fish loved it, though, and bass fishing was great. Since then they've managed to kill it off somehow but there's always patches of it here and there. Great place to net up ghost shrimp for fish food!
Haggisman
12-27-2004, 9:05 PM
Freshwater "water sprite" or the infuriating "duckweed".
The fastest growing aquatic plant is probably kelp. It grows over 2 feet per day.
Caulerpa and elodea are both pretty fast growing for aquarium type plants.