what kind of plant ?

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:35 am

[/img]http://pstr-m01.ygpweb.aol.com/data/02E ... A0.jpg[img]
I need to know what kind of plant this is, any help would be great.
http://pstr-m01.ygpweb.aol.com/data/02E ... EC00A0.jpg

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 10:40 am

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 11:17 am

Okay, this plant spreads out instead of up... its not as soft as most plants. It reminds me of java moss, but its definatly not. It is verry full, and is a light green color. My friend said he has seen it in both aquariums and on the shores of some lakes. Please let me know what this is, its driving me nuts. Oh and the firts day I put it in my tank, I put about a pound of it in, the next morning, it was all gone. I noticed my snails (mystery ) as in the picture.. they were on it. My tanks are filled with live plants and they do not harm them at all. Why are they munching down all of this and what is this?? I have like 5 pounds of it and my baby fish and shrimp LOVE to hide and play in it. I use it as ground coverage.

gnatster · Post by **gnatster** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:29 pm

Picture is way to small to tell.

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:47 pm

It wont let me post a larger picture

chlorophyll · Post by **chlorophyll** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 2:01 am

I don't know if it matches based on that pic, but Nitella or Nitella flexilis comes to my mind by your description. Also Nitella's an alga so it might be munched on by shrimp. Mine tended to disappear in my shrimp tanks... slowly though. In my betta tank (no shrimp), it lasts forever... so I'm guessing the shrimp do munch on it.

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:17 am

I tried to look for pictures on that plant and I can't get a good one.. If you know where I can see a pic of that that'll be great! Thanks again

chlorophyll · Post by **chlorophyll** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 3:10 am

It's probably not what you have (from your pics it doesn't look like it), but here are a couple pics of Nitella:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/i ... lla_lg.jpg
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve's%2 ... la%201.jpg

The second picture is closer to what mine typically looked like. It's also known as Stonewort. I love the stuff. Wish it lasted longer in my shrimp tanks.

By the way, for hosting fuller sized pictures online, try
http://www.myonlineimages.com

Can't say how long that site will last, but it's perfect for anyone here who wants to post their shrimp pics.

http://www.bravenet.com
Also free, and has been around a long time. I think they too allow remote linking.

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 2:12 pm

Okay, these are better larger images. Thanks for all your help, and hopefully we can get this identified.

Urkevitz · Post by **Urkevitz** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:46 pm

Definetaly looks like Stonewort, its a freshwater macroalgae.

chlorophyll · Post by **chlorophyll** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:00 am

yeah......... it is still a little hard with those pictures, but I guess it could actually be Nitella/Stonewort. Not really sure though.

If you take some out of the water, gently stretch it out and drape it across your hand, its appearance may look a little more like this:
http://www.kranswieren.nl/Resources/fot ... abitus.jpg
or this
http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/we ... itella.jpg

...especially at its tips.
And its texture is little more slippery than any moss.

It contains a lot of calcium, I believe. And perhaps shrimp are drawn to munch on it periodically, as they would a shed exoskeleton.

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 9:52 am

Mines not slippery at all its actually kinda brittle, but it doesn't fall apart. I put it in my shrimp tank yesterday morning about a baseball sized amount. And this morning its all gone. There going nuts over it. If anyone wants some email me, crazy awesome stuff.

JaVaGiRl · Post by **JaVaGiRl** » Thu Jun 30, 2005 8:26 pm

my email address is AlLMe2Peace@aol.com its easier to copy and paste, allme2peace@aol.com