Jump to content

How to remove the bane of my aquarium - Utricularia!!!!!


Heavyd

Recommended Posts

Okay so I've been fighting to remove this weed from my tanks for a very long time. I don't know how I got it, but now I can't get rid of it. I looked it up and I think it's called Utricularia gibba, and whilst it's therapeutic to spend hours carefully extricating it from my mosses, I'm not winning with it.

Now I'm assuming I'm not the only one to experience this highly irritating weed in their shrimp tanks. So are there any solutions barring physically removing it or throwing out all the mosses in my tank? Has anyone trialled a peroxide dip to kill it?

Here are some photo's for idenfication purposes:

20130430_165116_zps423553c4.jpg

20130430_165134_zps7fffefae.jpg

20130430_165141_zps81db7e11.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know how I got it' date=' but now I can't get rid of it.[/quote']

really should have used protection Bro!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's too late for prevention Chi. I am infected and need some help......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh no dude! That stuff looks evil, hope you have success getting rid of it :encouragement:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to have em, and thought they wee great, until they overtook the tank ! Like duckweed, persistence will eventually pay off !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my book theres only the one way to get rid of it, and it sucks! That's pretty much dump whatever the plant is growing in I'm afraid. I've had it myself

in the past so removed all of the mosses and plants from the tank, spent probably 2 days in all working through each and every bit, only when I had a

plant I was 100% sure was no longer infected did I put that into another tank to grow out for a month to ensure still Utric-free. After that isolation the

plants went back into the main tank. I still had missed two pieces that must have somehow wrapped around a stem, after the grow out period I could see

the utric coming away on those and just decided I had enough of that plant that weren't infected to simply bin them. Harsh but I hate Utrics in my shrimp

tanks, and I grow Carnivorous Plants, been growing for almost 40 years now but that one is nasty! Evil little B****D!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been waging war on this plant too, it is interesting in that its carnivorous and when allowed to grow above water even has quite a nice flower......but MAN this stuff is doing my head in. Basically I have been doing weekly (sometimes daily) attacks on the stuff to remove it from my tanks. I have learnt that it likes to grip to itself so I keep a shallow dish of water beside me to put the bits I have removed from the tank in. This stops the rotten stuff sticking to my fingers and going back in the tank and makes a nice big jumbled clump that even the smallest piece will cling to. The only down side of removing this curse is one of my Siamese fighters actually likes bedding down in the tangle, so by removing it I am effectively removing his favourite bed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its pure evil that one. Does have a nice flower but its those small pieces 5 - 10mm long which you don't see that just come away so quickly its annoying

hence my destruction of many plants that have ended up in the compost bin all because of that flamin utric!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all of the condolences.

I have tried diligently removing this weed manually to no avail. It always reappears. Bearing in mind that it's in a large 200 litre tank with loads of mosses. Maybe I will have to trial a peroxide dip to see if the Utricularia dies before the mosses. Anyone able to suggest a suitable concentration to trial?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought I would bump this up and ask again.

I'm ready to take this war on Utricularia to the next level.

Does anyone know which of the following mosses and liverworts can withstand a peroxide dip and/or having it syringed into the aquarium?? And at what concentrations? 3% or 6%?

Weeping moss

Fissidens

Mini pellia

Peacock moss

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eeeep, thats a lot of utric! I have some in my planted tank (it hitched a ride on some plants I added) and it pops up every couple weeks wrapped up in other plants and I just manually remove what I can see and repeat the process when it pops up again, it sure grows fast and is a little annoying but damn I'm really glad now I have been removing it constantly (just didn't like the look of it) otherwise it would of probably taken over the tank!

I'm no expert on the peroxide dip but I have read in the past the fissidens doesn't stand up well to dips, I don't really remember if it was with bleach solution or peroxide, but maybe trial a small piece of each plant and the utric and see how it holds up?

Good luck mate hope you find a way to get ride of it all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ahhh i hate that stuff! seriously doomed dont think i can get rid of it in some of my plants...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes I think trial and error will be the way to go. Almost couldn't be bothered attacking that tank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I've attacked the tank twice now with tweezers, but I can never get it all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Persistance

i have found this in 1 of our tanks

im getting as much out as quick as possible

i also get this other s hit that is really thin and almost resembles ambulia

It's light green and almost transparent

do you know what it is ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The tank is too big, with too much moss to get it all.

You got any pictures of the other stuff?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i had it in my planted tank and had to do a shock and awe method... i took cuttings and carefully washed it all and then chucked the infected plants.... Never again!!!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3580[/ATTACH]

sorry... i'm unleashing my inner squiggle ;)

post-23-139909850716_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i had it in my planted tank and had to do a shock and awe method... i took cuttings and carefully washed it all and then chucked the infected plants.... Never again!!!

sorry... i'm unleashing my inner squiggle ;)

LOL Got to agree, the only way I got rid of it eventually was full tank breakdown, took some cuttings and dumped the rest after working through it

to ensure nothing left. Found a single piece about a cm long a week later, removed and all okay. But a really annoying plant to say the least

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fissidens doesn't like Peroxide. Nothing does really... Ultricularia is a plant as well, not an algae, so if a moss can survive a peroxide dip with its thin sensitive leaves, Ultricularia can too, especially considering its stem's are a lot thicker than the mosses branches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Persistance

i have found this in 1 of our tanks

im getting as much out as quick as possible

i also get this other s hit that is really thin and almost resembles ambulia

It's light green and almost transparent

do you know what it is ?

Sounds like Nitella Flexilis?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...