Hornswort question

[Ook]

I've tried unsucessfully to grow Hornswort for a few years, and finally gave
up. Several months ago I moved, and in my tank I had a few 1 inch scraps of
old hornswort, barely alive. Today, it is an infestation that I have to thin
periodically. Is Hornswort sensitive to different water types? I have very
soft water right now, where before it was fairly hard.

[Richard Sexton]

In article >,
Ook <Ook Don't send me any freakin' spam at zootal dot com delete the Don't send me any freakin' spam> wrote:
>I've tried unsucessfully to grow Hornswort for a few years, and finally gave
>up. Several months ago I moved, and in my tank I had a few 1 inch scraps of
>old hornswort, barely alive. Today, it is an infestation that I have to thin
>periodically. Is Hornswort sensitive to different water types? I have very
>soft water right now, where before it was fairly hard.
>
>

It likes lots of light and food and doesn't care about water. I just relazed now
mine has all vanished whereas a year ago I was pulling it out by the garbage bag full.

Duckweed out-competed it. God I hate duckweed. It's the herpes of fishtanks.

--
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[Nikki Casali]

Richard Sexton wrote:

> Duckweed out-competed it. God I hate duckweed. It's the herpes of fishtanks.

You must have had serious duckweeditis for it to out compete Hornwort.
One day, when I was bored out of my head, I decided upon the challenge
to remove duckweed from my 100L planted tank, once and for all. It took
over an hour to track down almost all of it. Every day thereafter I
checked to see if any came back. I'd get one or two leaves here or
there. Regard a single leaf as bad as having a tank full of it. That
leaf must be removed immediately. A week later and there were none to be
seen. Four weeks later, today, nothing still! Woohooo, I'm free! Well,
almost. I have one more tank to de-duckweed. Must be extremely careful
with cross-contamination in the meantime, however.

Nikki

[Marco Schwarz]

Hi..

> I've tried unsucessfully to grow Hornswort for a few
> years, and finally gave up. Several months ago I moved,
> and in my tank I had a few 1 inch scraps of old hornswort,
> barely alive. Today, it is an infestation that I have to
> thin periodically. Is Hornswort sensitive to different
> water types? I have very soft water right now, where
> before it was fairly hard.

Mine in a summer pond in the dark shade of some trees has
been growing heavily this year but in another (sunny)
summer pond it has been competed in a few weeks by water
lettuce..

In a small tank at the souterrain window baby water lettuce
and duckweed are fighting for the gold medal in
displacement.. :-)

In my tanks and ponds Elodea were always able to compete
hornwort..

But neither duckweed nor water lettuce seem to be able to
kill Elodea definitely. Allthough they made it stagnate for
a while..

--
cu
Marco

[Abraham Evangelista]

On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:19:03 +0200, Marco Schwarz
> wrote:

>Hi..
>
>> I've tried unsucessfully to grow Hornswort for a few
>> years, and finally gave up. Several months ago I moved,
>> and in my tank I had a few 1 inch scraps of old hornswort,
>> barely alive. Today, it is an infestation that I have to
>> thin periodically. Is Hornswort sensitive to different
>> water types? I have very soft water right now, where
>> before it was fairly hard.
>
>Mine in a summer pond in the dark shade of some trees has
>been growing heavily this year but in another (sunny)
>summer pond it has been competed in a few weeks by water
>lettuce..
>
>In a small tank at the souterrain window baby water lettuce
>and duckweed are fighting for the gold medal in
>displacement.. :-)
>
>In my tanks and ponds Elodea were always able to compete
>hornwort..

Heh. My experience was the complete and total opposite of yours. The
hornwort I have in the tanks completely outgrows the elodea, and just
about everything else too! If I don't prune it back at least once a
week, it starts to shade everything else! The elodea grows nearly as
fast, but it's much quicker to shed its lower leaves, and can't keep
up with the predation from the gouramis and kribs in the tank. In
comparison, the hornwort seems to be much less appetizing, so it gets
to grow longer.

In our pond, elodea and hornwort grow just about as quickly, but the
hornwort grows more densely than the elodea. I fertilize the tank,
but not the pond, which may explain the relatively slower growth
despite sunlight.

>But neither duckweed nor water lettuce seem to be able to
>kill Elodea definitely. Allthough they made it stagnate for
>a while..

Not that I'm complaining, but while there's always a stray piece of
duckweed here and there in my tanks, they never seem to expand. I
haven't yet ended up having to pull out the netfulls that everyone
seems to complain about, but there's always a little bit in the tank
and pond.
--
"Oh no! look over there! How did a Chupacabra get into the house? Quick!
Hide all the goats!" - Lisa, Girl's Bravo, English Dub
Abraham Evangelista

[Marco Schwarz]

Hi..

[...]
> Heh. My experience was the complete and total opposite of
> yours.

Well.., that's real life..! :-)

> In our pond, elodea and hornwort grow just about as
> quickly, but the
> hornwort grows more densely than the elodea. I fertilize
> the tank, but not the pond, which may explain the
> relatively slower growth despite sunlight.

Hmm.., in our fish keeping tradition "eloda" includes
several elodea-like species. I'm mainly familiar with
Egeria densa, Elodea canadensis and Hydrilla verticilliata.
And the hornwort I mean is Ceratophyllum demersum. BTW: All
my tanks, barrels and (summer) ponds are low stocked and
planted.

> Not that I'm complaining, but while there's always a stray
> piece of duckweed here and there in my tanks, they never
> seem to expand. I haven't yet ended up having to pull out
> the netfulls that everyone seems to complain about, but
> there's always a little bit in the tank and pond.

Are these tanks stocked with gold fish or colour carps..?

--
cu
Marco

[Abraham Evangelista]

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:16:03 +0200, Marco Schwarz
> wrote:

>Hi..
>
>[...]
>> Heh. My experience was the complete and total opposite of
>> yours.
>
>Well.., that's real life..! :-)
>
>> In our pond, elodea and hornwort grow just about as
>> quickly, but the
>> hornwort grows more densely than the elodea. I fertilize
>> the tank, but not the pond, which may explain the
>> relatively slower growth despite sunlight.
>
>Hmm.., in our fish keeping tradition "eloda" includes
>several elodea-like species. I'm mainly familiar with
>Egeria densa, Elodea canadensis and Hydrilla verticilliata.

I had some Hydrilla Verticilliata at one point, but right now I'm
"Keeping" Egeria Densa. I dump it into the water. If it gets eaten,
I add more from the tank where it grows. If it grows, I prune it,
replant the tops, and dump the bottoms into the tanks where it gets
eaten. :-)

>And the hornwort I mean is Ceratophyllum demersum. BTW: All
>my tanks, barrels and (summer) ponds are low stocked and
>planted.
>
>> Not that I'm complaining, but while there's always a stray
>> piece of duckweed here and there in my tanks, they never
>> seem to expand. I haven't yet ended up having to pull out
>> the netfulls that everyone seems to complain about, but
>> there's always a little bit in the tank and pond.
>
>Are these tanks stocked with gold fish or colour carps..?

Nope! Platys, Plecos, Kribs, Snails, Shrimp, and CO2.
--
2006.09.22 - Abe vs. the fish of Crum Creek!
Abe: 11
Fish: 8
Redworms: -19