# id help from the midwest



## dstrong (Feb 13, 2011)

I got this plant from a large clump growning in a lake yesterday. Any ideas? I'm fairly sure its a stem plant. Oh and the leaves were a rich green, they look like that because I just dipped them.


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

Looks like an_ Elodea_.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

It looks like _Elodea canadensis_ with its short, rounded leaves.


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## Lakeplants (Feb 21, 2011)

Elodea canadensis and E. nuttallii are both common in the Midwest, and both are doing very well in my aquarium, alongside their close cousins Egeria densa and Egeria najas.


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## dstrong (Feb 13, 2011)

I think I successfuly killed them with my bleach dip...


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Looking at your picture, I would have thought that the parts of the plant where the stem is still green would have made it.

With stem plants, a two minute dip in 5% liquid bleach is good enough to kill all filamentous algae except _Cladophora_, and fortunately, _Cladophora_ isn't found attached to younger portions of stem plants, only to very old parts of stem plants or the rhizomes of plants with thick rhizomes, such as Crypts. These plants easily survive 4 minutes, which is needed to kill all the _Cladophora_.

A 2 minute dip shouldn't kill _Elodea canadensis_. Just by coincidence, I have some _Elodea canadensis_ that I got in a N. Wisconsin lake a few weeks ago, and which has recovered from a 2-minute dip.


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## dstrong (Feb 13, 2011)

It was more like a 4-5 minute dip. The only part that didn't melt is the very top quarter inch of two of them which are floating around the top of my tank now. I hope they come back as I like the leaf texture it would add to my tank and it would be a perfect plant to hide my intake tube. I think part of it was that it came from relativly cool lake water, sat for a day and then went in my tank which is overheated at the moment =/ like 80-82 degrees.


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## Lakeplants (Feb 21, 2011)

Both Elodea spp. are well-accustomed to warm water, particularly E. canadensis. I don't think the warm temperature per se would have had any negative effect on the plants.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Those top quarter inch pieces of Elodea should make it if they are still alive. It is a tough little plant. You might add some iron, if you are not doing that already, which would help them grow.


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## dstrong (Feb 13, 2011)

Yes I add iron. Do you think it would be best to let them float until they root or plant them?


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Let them float where they get good light. Plant them when they produce a root.


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## dstrong (Feb 13, 2011)

That's hard because the flow of my tank makes anything on the surface do laps around the outside. Maybe ill pick up one of those rings to hold floating food tomorrow and throw them in there.


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## miremonster (Mar 26, 2006)

Lakeplants said:


> Both Elodea spp. are well-accustomed to warm water, particularly E. canadensis. I don't think the warm temperature per se would have had any negative effect on the plants.


OK, interesting; mostly one can find the contrary in aquarium books. Once I grew E. nuttallii in a normal warm water tank without problems, but with E. canadensis I didn't even try it because of the infos in the literature.
Btw., E. canadensis occurs in Europe since 19th century, and in recent times E. nuttallii is strongly spreading. In many places in Germany it's already more frequent than E. canadensis.


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