# Help, plant ID and extermination tips



## Talonstorm (Feb 16, 2005)

I have a mystery plant that somehow was inadvertently introduced to my 55 gallon tank. I have only one species of grass in this tank, that is how I want it. It is high light (4.72 wpg) and has CO2 (pressurized) injection. Anyway, this mystery plant is weaving itself into the grass and then grows so thick it begins to choke the grass out. Here are some bad pictures of the mystery plant for ID purposes:










It breaks into zillions of these little pieces if you try to pull it out, thus spreading itself all over the tank.









Here is a picture of a small section that is lightly covered in the grass, you can see a bit of the pest plant stuck to the filter intake.









Please help, this plant is ruining my tank. Is there anyway I can kill it, but not the grass (eleocharis acicularis)?

Thanks,
Tina


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

That's Riccia fluitans. The only way you can get rid of it is to do it manually. 

You may have to replant everything after picking it all out.


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## Talonstorm (Feb 16, 2005)

Thanks. I had some of that in my other tank, maybe I has some on my hands or something when I was doing tank maintenance at one time. I keep picking it out, but it is impossible to separate from the grass, so I end up tearing up large sections of grass along with it. Maybe I will just let it go and see what happens. The grass might just grow up through it. How aggravating! :mad2: 

Tina


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