Elodea canadensis

Does this plant do good in aquaria?

I collected some from a river in Western North Carolina and wanted to know if it is a plant that will grow in a fish tank.

It needs a lot of light. Does well in ponds, not so well in aquaria.

Will it grow?

Heh.

Just try to stop it from growing. That plant was outlawed in some states simply because it grows too much and makes a mess of things when it escapes. It's very useful though, as it's great for making greenwater for feeding fry and for filtering the water. It is greedy for light, though. If you have at least 1.8 watts per gallon of lighting, it'll grow. More light = faster growth.

Edited by Mysteryman, 06 July 2008 - 08:36 PM.

I have some in my tank. It does need plenty of light to thrive, but to struggle on with sheer determination, not so much. I managed to acquire some with the idea that I would keep it at home all year round, so that when the Science teachers wanted some, I'd have some on hand without them having to wait for it to be "in season" since they were forever wanting it three to four weeks before they could actually get it.

But you know something? You can't fool Mom Nature. You can try all you want to, but she's still gonna have it her way. It went dormant, as in, I thought it had all died. Shocked the socks off of me when it showed up in my tanks again. But, surprise, surprise, by the time I had enough to share the teachers were already done with their experiments and off on to something else. School schedules don't wait for nobody, not even Mother Nature.

I agree with Irate, it does do better in a pond than an aquarium because, while it loves light, I'm not sure it necessarily loves heat and most aquarium tanks are heated too much for its comfort zone.

I like it, I think it's worth having a try at it.

If you want a ton of it, just put some in a bucket of old funky tank water and leave it out where it gets several hours of sunlight. It should take off and provide plenty to stuff your tanks with.

Goldfish and painted turtles like to eat it; I don't if any native fish will do much to it.

Thanks

I usually mess with the non native Egeria densa


But I thought I would give this a try since it is native to my area and I could get some

plant was outlawed in some states simply because it grows too much and makes a mess of things when it escapes.

News to me... what states are you thinking of?

Perhaps you are thinking of Egeria densa, aka Brazillian Elodea? Different species, and yes, banned by many states.

Egeria Densa can definitely cause problems

Never seen Elodea canadensis do that though (at least in North Carolina)

Just an update- the elodea canadensis I put in my 20 gallon is doing pretty good.

I collected some more yesterday and put it outside.

Perhaps you are thinking of Egeria densa, aka Brazillian Elodea? Different species, and yes, banned by many states.

Whorls of leaves of 3, amen, take home with me. Whorls of leaves of 5, throw that crap in the trash, it don't jive.

Whoops. I guess that IS what I was thinking about, eh?