Aldrovanda in an aquarium?

[Clint]

I've got great light, pressurized co2, so could I grow some floating? The light is a 65 watt 10000K PC lamp and the co2 stays aroundd 30-40 ppm. Never drops below 30, only when I refill the cylinder every other month or so, and at night when the solenoid shuts off the flow and plants don't use it anyway.

The thing that gets me is the nutrients.. I've always got an excess of nutrients (the whole point in a planted aquarium) AND i've also got some breeding cherry shrimp. Adults are about an inch long. the adults could feet the plants with the babies

I've also got a strong filter, so i'll have to make a "corral" for the aldrovanda.

Think it's possible given the excess of nutrients? Ph stays at about 6.6, GH is around 4-4.5 and KH is about 3.5-4. Just rounding.I've got no tannins. I dose Iron, Phosphate, nitrate, potassium, and trace elements. Nitrate is my biggest worry... stays around 20 ppm.

 

[Clint]

Well I just bought 6 turions just coming out of dormancy of red Aldrovanda originating from Kimberly.

Hey neat, they are sending three snails that won't harm the aldrovanda. Cool beans.

This type can be grown without a dormancy, right? Is a year round temperature of 75 degrees good?

If for whatever reason it won't grow, I can make a tank outside using the typical method. I have high hopes.

 

[StifflerMichael]

I grow Aldrovanda in my planted tropical aquarium. I started with something like 5 or 6 strands more than two years ago, and now I can pull out several handfuls. Recently it has even started flowering. The variety I have is from Darwin Australia. I got it from a plant biologist at the NECPS, and he has confirmed it is tropical, and does not require dormancy.

My tank has 220W compact fluorescent lighting (from AHSupply), along with pressurized CO2 injection (30-40ppm). I dose nutrients quite frequently, maintaining 10ppm NO3, 0.5ppm PO4, ~10ppm K and ~0.1ppm Fe (I also dose traces). My GH is about 7dH and my KH at 4.5dH. I personally think that your reading of 20ppm NO3 is a bit high, I would shoot for something like 10 or 5 (though I can't say at 20ppm this will harm the Aldrovanda).

I likewise keep cherry shrimp, they don't bother the Aldrovanda as far as I know. I have some snails too, they never harm it either as far as I know. My tetras, hatchetfish, otos and cories also never harm the Aldrovanda. However my SAE does pick at the traps when he's hungry, but only the plants he has easy access to.

I never actually see any prey in the traps, including cherry shrimp babies. I've considered though hatching some brine shrimp, then seperating the Aldrovanda into a fish bowl for a night and adding in the brine shrimp larvae to feed the plant...maybe like once a month or so.

The Aldrovanda will find its way to the lower, light-starved areas of the aquarium if steps are not taken to hold it at the surface. My method is to let my stem plants grow to cover a good amount of surface area. This makes a bed for the Aldrovanda to lay on. It keeps them held up right below the lights, and protects them from the SAE...as well as stopping them from flying all over the aquarium. My filter is pretty powerful also, however I have an Eheim canister filter, and I put the spraybar below the water and angled slightly downward, this prevents a lot of the Aldrovanda from going to the bottom of the tank. A corral is good idea if it works for you, I tried one and it looked ugly I thought and took up too much space, plus it was one of those net kind and turned into an algae magnet (though there is little to no detectable algae in my tank, it grew on this stuff).

Where did you order your plants from? If you would like, I would like to trade with you in the future. When the weather becomes more suitable for shipping aquatic plants.

And, yes, I do find it strange that my Aldrovanda thrives in such nutrient rich conditions.

Best of luck!

Mike

 

[Clint]

I ordered them from Ebay. Chuck(with numbers after his name).

I'd be more than happy to trade for you whenever you'd like. I can trade now if you want. I'm still getting plants in the mail from up north with no problems.


I'll try to lower my nitrate. Shouldn't be a problem, i'm just afraid of BGA

 

[FarmerDave]

they sound cool!

I've heard that they are hard to grow though

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

I have a good Daphnia culture going!!! I could seperate a culture for folks and they could grow aldrovanda food! LOL

Clint remember the tank-o-sludge in my GH picture? It has since cleared, and when I went out there one night and held a flashlight to the side I saw quite a few daphnia swimming around. I just need to get some more green water going for food for the dafnia

I found a daphnia culture guide on the internet too. he he he

 

[FarmerDave]

really? where?
I need something to do. just woke up at 3:00 and can't get back to sleep

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

yahoo for daphnia culture and it should bring up a few things on how to keep a daphnia culture going.

The one I liked used green water.  In other words algea water to feed them.  It also talked about how to feed them with bacteria using some sort of fish food to get the bacteria going.  I am basicly keeping them without doing much of anything.  Just don't fill with chlorinated water it will kill them.  

  I got the daphnia with my azolla culture I got from school and been growing both ever since.  I love these little creatures they are interesting to look at under a scope too.

If you grow utrics with the suspended in water method where you can see the traps growing down in the water. These would be a good thing to feed them with.

Not to mention the aldrovandas

 

[FarmerDave]

cool! and will do JB

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Once you figure out how to grow them Farmer Dave. I will send you a culture to get you started. It will contain some Azolla too.