watercress

[sorrel]

Has anyone tried growing watercress (yep, the edible stuff) in an aquarium? I have some watercress seedlings in a pot, and when they get a little bigger, I want to try transferring them to the tank. It's an unheated, low-light tank setup.

I am tempted to try water chestnuts too, if I can find a source of them. I am intrigued by the idea of harvesting edible plants out of my fishtank.

 

[Dangerdoll]

it's a cool idea...or one would think but if you think about it realistically, you're setting yourself up for trouble IMO.
Unless of course the tank is specifically for the plant, I would say it's a bad idea. I don't know.... using the chemicals and such, if there's past diseases of the fish that you've remedied and that kind of thing.....whatever the bacteria count is like, that kind of thing.... all of that is being soaked up by the plant and because of these goings on.... I wouldn't be putting them on any dish to serve for consumption..... I might be wrong... but I'm not chancing it either.

(EDIT: typo)

 

[sorrel]

Yeah, I would definitely not want to eat anything out of a "typical" aquarium. But this one is kind of a zero-maintainence low-tech tank. I have never put any chemicals in it. It doesn't even have lights or filters. It does have fish, of course...that's the source of organic fertilizer for the plants! I eat wild plants a lot, and I figure anything out of this tank would be safer than stuff growing outside, anyway.

 

[RTR]

The cool temps are good, but watercress wants bright light and fairly nutrient rich water. In cool-summer areas, it can be used as a veggie filter channeled off a goldfish pond.