# Wolffia - worse than duckweed!



## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

K, i've taken care of duckweed successfully in the past: patience and tweezers! But somehow, for the first time ever, I got wolffia! I dont' even know where it came from. I only picked up 3 otos from a LFS but they have no floating plants in any tanks that I saw (and I have purchased stuff there often over the last 2 years). Anyway...

suggestions for getting rid of this stuff? I have a heavily planted 65 gallon and vals are covering about 1/3 of the surface, so netting it out with a brine net doesn't look like a fantastic solution.

as for my fish load... I only have 5 SAEs and a handful of otos. a few random snails that hitched rides on plants, nothing special. I wouldn't mind adding a "utility" fish to go to town on this stuff, but i'm having trouble finding good info. a temporary feeder goldfish maybe? american flagfish?

obviously, if i have to resort to tiny tweezers and a tiny net, i will do so... but this stuff is growing quickly and i think i need a little help from mother nature! suggestions?


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

I have always, happily, kept Duckweed as a treat for Goldfish but I have, either been fortunate or never noticed the various Wollfias. Once we (myself and friends) did not appreciate Hornwort but I have since been told that UV gets rid of it. The plant was great in a tank but any small piece regrew very fast and became a pain.

I do not have any sure methods of getting rid of Wollfia (try the UV, if you can) but it's green and growing so just net it out and throw it on the Lawn or flower beds while you count your blessings for the growth and the fact that it's not Algae. Otherwise get a few Goldfish and keep feeding them the unwanted green stuff. Also do lots of water changes. Any natural treatment such as the net is superior to any chemical even though it may seem as if the chemical is easier.


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## CaptainNemo (Jul 11, 2008)

It seems to me that just about any fish eats the stuff. I had a 55 planted that got it and I had tons of it. I used to scoop it out and feed it to my fish, severums really liked it. I added some tiger endlers to the tank, and the Wolffia was gone in a few weeks. I'd say that just about anything you add to your tank will probably eat it.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

nooo no no no chemical solutions 

I have a UV sterilizer already (runs nightly). doesn't seem to affect it.

lawn? LAWN? I'm from Michigan! It's 8 degrees outside today! hee hee. I won't see "Lawn" until May!


i don't have spare tanks (nor will I set them up just to house goldfish). I'm wondering if a fish like a platty or a flagfish or a rainbow will eat this junk and I can keep 'em in my tank anyway as part of the clean-up crew (as you can see, the clean-up crew is all i have and all i actually want!).


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

CaptNemo sez just about anything eats it. So...

We have lots of snow on the ground here too and single digit temps but Spring is coming, count on it. Anything can be dumped in at least one spot until the snow melts and recovers the green stuff and as soon as the temp increases a bit the natural bugs wiil break the stuff down.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I think it is quite rare to see wolffia in the aquarium, so you might count yourself lucky.

To get rid of it, simply keep netting it out. It will take a while, maybe a few weeks, but it will eventually be removed. This is the only surefire way to get rid of it that won't harm the rest of your plants.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

ha ha yeah, real "lucky".......

now i need to go buy a small net! my normal fish nets have holes which are too large. blah... with the vals forming a huge mess of leaves on the surface, i'll never get this stuff all out


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## madfish (Oct 28, 2007)

I know a shop vac worked great for me. I would just suck some of it up everyday untill it was gone. But I think it took close to a month to make sure that I got it all. Just hold it right above the water and watch it get sucked right up with some of the water. But best of luck on it.


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## wrkucera (Jan 6, 2008)

Throw a couple gallons of bleach in it. that should take care of anything you don't want. you may have to start again...


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## overboard (Mar 11, 2008)

rosy barbs eat duckweed... they would probably eat it.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

rosy barbs... wet vac... or bleach. those are my options... hmm... let's ponder that...

bleach... i already have some, but i'd need to replace quite a lot of living stuff (like, ALL of it). cost - few hundred dollars

wet vac... i don't own one, but could buy one. cost... hundred bucks for a cheapo?

rosy barbs... don't own one... can buy for 3 bucks at most LFS? then i can take 'em back and get a buck in store credit. i didn't want to buy a feeder goldfish (tank is maybe too warm for him?). i imagine they'll leave the SAEs and otos alone (actually, i don't think anything can go near the SAE's; they are way too fast).


man, i really thought duckweed was bad. at least i could net that stuff!


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## Cliff Mayes (Jan 29, 2007)

I am partial to Goldfish but feeders are lousy with bad stuff and get very large very fast and live a long time and you said you did not want to go that route. The temp shouldn't be a problem though.

A few small, inexpensive, fish and a net seem to be the answer.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

yeah... one nice thing about a feeder goldfish is that it would be very easy to catch (goldfish are stupid!). but i'd still be worried of the diseases it might be carrying, plus the fact that goldies prefer cooler water. So maybe two rosy barbs will do the trick. i'll see if I can get them at the LFS. hopefully they'll go after the wolffia before the plants. then again, even if they nip at a few plants, i doubt they could really stunt the growth of anything in there


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

In case anyone is interested, wolffia is 40% protein and has no fat, about the same as soybeans. It might make a good food for people, and all it needs is sunlight and water.

It's green, too. 

Bill


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

yeah, i saw that it is eaten by people and was rich in plant protein! kind of cool. too bad i'm still not gonna eat anything that comes out of my aquarium 

speaking of things that aren't eating it... neither are the stupid goldfish i picked up (the LFS didn't have any rosy barbs in... or anything else i felt like trying, so i went with goldies because they are dumber than heck and easy to catch later). the only thing i'm worried about is all the diseases that can come with them. hopefully i'll be alright. they seem to be ok... but MAN are they dumb. and they haven't really been eating the wolffia. they take bites occasionally, but then spit it out half of the time. i thought these guys were gonna tear into this stuff like candy! i might have to help them out by scooping most of it out... maybe they'll finish off the rest? i dunno... but having these big GOLD things in the tank are a bit of an eye sore! *sigh* i should have just used the hand grenade suggestion...


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Why not tie down the other plants, so they aren't near the surface for a few days. Then just scoop out the wolffia?

Also, try not feeding the goldfish for a few days, they should get hungry and eat the plants.


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

actually, I have a proposal. 
Use UV quartz lamps over the tank. 
The UV won't penetrate very far into the water (tap water has say, 10% attenuation of UV/cm, so 10 cm below the water you have 35% remaining UV. If you add some blackwater extract or have yellowing water then the attenuation is much higher. 
The UV will however fry any plants floating on the surface. Obviously do not stay in the room while you fry them, or cover the top of the tank with a blanket or other shield.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

actually, both are pretty good suggestions. i'm already not feeding the goldies. (i don't feed any animals in the tank, actually).

frying them with UV lights is kind of a neat idea. i might have to consider it.

the vals i could weigh down i think... but i have some other stuff that sticks out that i can't quite deal with. regardless, i think i'll have to start scooping some stuff out... the wolffia i think will multiply faster than the goldies can eat it (if they ever get around to it).

i'll keep the UV grenade in my back pocket as a last resort. it would certainly be a fun experiment, though! i like stuff like that!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

The UV bomb sounds fun ^^ like something out of the movie Blade.

Why not try sell some of it on the for sale section of the site? I'm sure someone would like some. A lot of people breed fish and Wollfia would be a great cover, or food for certain fish. Since it isn't too common I think people would probably buy it.


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

that's not a bad idea. maybe i'll fish out a couple of small bags of this stuff and offer it up for the S&H costs or something. i wouldn't keep and grow it... but maybe other people would. i just thought of this only as a pest species.

one man's pest is another man's prize!


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

I might be tempted to trade a bag of it for something if I can't get it locally. 40% dry protein with waste water growth media? sounds like a miracle for sustainable farming.


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## fishyerik (Oct 8, 2008)

I would have been interested in some wolffia, but I'm in Sweden, not sure if it'd be worth the cost and trouble sending it.

I think the goldfish should clean it up if you take most of it away and keep other plants down so they don't protect the wolffia from beeing eaten.

I've been considering spraying duckweed with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) haven't tried it yet, so i can't tell if it works even for duckweed, but with concentration strong enough and enough of it is used I can't see how wolffia or common duckweed could survive it. One should always be careful when handling H2O2, and not add too much to the tank at a time. 

One problem with duckweed is that it can lay dormant and hidden, so even if all floating visible duckweed is picked away or killed one time it can reappear, it might be the same with wolffia.


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## chaznsc (Sep 29, 2006)

good luck, i still have DW in my socks!


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I have a suspicion that duckweed can also set seeds and survive long periods of time being dried out. I had a 10 gallon tank with duckweed that I was using to breed killies and then I let the water completely evaporate and the plants die off. A year and a half later I filled it with water and the duckweed came back to life! 

I'm not sure if wolffia does this as well though.


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## Jackalope (Feb 5, 2009)

This stuff sounds good ..... I've been trying to buy some duckweed and tubifex worms locally, even went to every pet shop in Billings (100 miles away) looking for them, no one sells them any more. Anyone that has some starters of duckweed, wolffia, and tubifex worms that doesn't want them, is welcome to contact me, .... I'll pay the S&H   if it isn't too much.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Hehe, one man's curse is another man's blessing


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

the goldfish... completely uninterested in the stuff. so now i have two feeders i need to give away (i can't bring myself to kill them). they took big bites, then spit it out. they were more interested in the snails, actually. they'd pluck baby snails off the glass and would eat them! stupid little orange gutter feeders...

so i'll try something else next. i saw some "rosy barbs" at the store but... they weren't rosy barbs. i'll keep my eyes open for them. in the mean time, i've been trying to just net some of it out to keep myself from going crazy. but the stuff will actually sink in the water and will very slowly resurface, so it's harder to snag than duckweed (which definitely rises to the surface much more quickly, if it even goes under at all).


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## Jackalope (Feb 5, 2009)

jpmtotoro said:


> the goldfish... completely uninterested in the stuff. so now i have two feeders i need to give away (i can't bring myself to kill them). they took big bites, then spit it out. they were more interested in the snails, actually. they'd pluck baby snails off the glass and would eat them! stupid little orange gutter feeders...
> 
> so i'll try something else next. i saw some "rosy barbs" at the store but... they weren't rosy barbs. i'll keep my eyes open for them. in the mean time, i've been trying to just net some of it out to keep myself from going crazy. but the stuff will actually sink in the water and will very slowly resurface, so it's harder to snag than duckweed (which definitely rises to the surface much more quickly, if it even goes under at all).


If you want to ship me some, I'd pay shipping (IF it isn't too much!) I figure that one of those large 6x8 or 8.5x11 manilla envelopes padded with bubble wrap with a couple/three wet paper towels and a handful or two of wolffia wouldn't cost too much to ship, that way, whatever survives the trip would be enough to make a starter for my tanks. Depending on where you live, it probably wouldn't be much more than 4 or 5 days at the most in the mail  I'll even send you the padded envelope .... I've got a few of those floating-(not a pun) around here


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## jpmtotoro (Feb 13, 2003)

sorry i didn't send any to anyone... this stuff is just too evil. this is not a case of "one man's junk..." unfortunately. it needed to be eradicated.

goldfish didn't work, rosy barbs didn't work, and neither did turquoise rainbows. i gave up and tried some white mollies because they were 2 bucks at petsmart. they are ugly as sin to look at, but they have been SLOWLY working away at it. i netted out whatever i could, and let those hungry guys go after the rest (i didn't feed them, i'm mean). they aren't the best "hunters" but they'll find it eventually and munch on it. of course, since they were petsmart fish, some of them slowly died away. one developed popeye shortly after i got him, and others had random sickly issues. but... i'm hoping in another week i'll be completely free! i would claim victory, but i'm sure there are 5 plants in there i can't see... and if left unchecked, they would multiply into 50 in a week, and then 500.

so, if anyone else is trying to get rid of some wolffia. starve some mollies. although i still think some hungry angels would have made a meal of it, too.


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## rcilsick (Sep 24, 2011)

Does anybody out there still have a problem with Wolffia? I am a high school science teacher in need of some for a science fair project. 

Ryan


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

rcilsick said:


> Does anybody out there still have a problem with Wolffia? I am a high school science teacher in need of some for a science fair project.
> 
> Ryan


I think that depends on the objectives of the project. As has been noted in preceding posts, wolffia grows rapidly and a culture of it would contain many plants in various stages of development. It also probably consumes a lot of nitrates and phosphates, and that might be interesting to demonstrate. It is also the smallest known flowering plant in the world.

However, it leaves much to be desired as a member of a diverse plant community and is probably best omitted from such an environment.

Good luck with the project!

Bill


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## rcilsick (Sep 24, 2011)

Oh I have several project in mind for my students. My only real problem is where to find some.....


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## Lakeplants (Feb 21, 2011)

rcilsick said:


> Oh I have several project in mind for my students. My only real problem is where to find some.....


Ryan, you should be able to find some growing wild in your area. Look for a stagnant ditch or nutrient-rich pond - it shouldn't be too hard to find. The surface of the water will be bright green, similar to the appearance of a mat of duckweeds.


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## Gor22don33 (Oct 25, 2011)

It seems to me that just about any fish eats the stuff. I had a 55 planted that got it and I had tons of it. I used to scoop it out and feed it to my fish, severums really liked it. I added some tiger endlers to the tank, and the Wolffia was gone in a few weeks. I'd say that just about anything you add to your tank will probably eat it.


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