frogbit.. only plant doing bad

Easydoesit

Easydoesit

AC Members
Mar 17, 2008
692
0
0
34
Taxachusetts
im pretty new to planted tanks.
in this tank i have some swords, pennywort, java moss, and frogbit.
the swords are doing excellent, very green healthy leaves. the pennywort is sprouting new leaves, and java moss is growing and very green.
the only problem is the frogbit.
it was growing like crazy for a few weeks, shooting off new leaves everywhere, the old leaves growing big. now all of a sudden, a lot of the leaves seem to be.. just dieing, melting away. all thats left are the babies, small leaves. what's left and healthy is green, but theres not much left. i dont know why it's doing so bad all of a sudden, while my other plants are doing great.

also, some.. not many at all.. leaves from the pennywort near the surface are turning to brown gunk as well. but it's only a few leaves, nothing to get me worried.

idk, something with the surface, maybe? i have an HOB, but the surface movement could be better. i also have a sand bed. maybe the gasses from the sand bed are coming up and staying at the surface on the side that doesnt have much surface movement.. which also happens to be the side the frogbit is on?

idk, help.
 
Mine died too. But all my plants are fine otherwise, I think in my case the lights were too hot. Don't know if this may be your problem as well.

Mine is the 10 gallon in my sig, I replaced the two incandescent bulbs with compact florescents.
 
Frogbit is a nutrient hog. When it first goes into the average tank there are often a lot of nutrients available, perhaps even an excess. Frogbit sucks them up and starts to reproduce fast. The problem is this rapid reproduction/growth will quickly get things to the point where there is now a lot more frogbit than there are nutrients left to feed it. The result is you roll over from a healthy happy amount to more than can be fed well and the result is the plants decline and even die. I liken it to lemmings- they overpopulate and then commit suicicde cause the colony gets too big.

Try removing a bunch and see how the rest does. Or you can up the amount of ferts you are dosing in order to keep it thriving.
 
Easydoesit said:
it was growing like crazy for a few weeks, shooting off new leaves everywhere, the old leaves growing big. now all of a sudden, a lot of the leaves seem to be.. just dieing, melting away.
Click to expand...

Mine grows in cycles like that as well. It grows like crazy, then it dies. I thin it out, then it grows like crazy again.

TwoTankAmin's explanation sounds reasonable based on my experience. I'm going to try to keep it thinned out all the time and see if that eliminates the dying stage of the cycle.
 
that sounds like it might be the reason.. makes sense. im not dosing any ferts yet and have to hold that off for a bit(saving right now for a big tank). ill take out the dieing and dead, maybe some healthy ones and leave the rest and see how it goes from there.
thanks guys
 
I noticed that too with my frogbit...the population exploded, then slowed, then some died off. I knew that between the frogbit and hornwort, all plants were aching for more nutrients. I just gave away some frogbit and hornwort, and will be tossing some more...I had way too much anyways.

I love this stuff though, great for creating shade and surf boards for my snails and shrimp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom