Duckweed, the good the bad and the ugly. Everything you need to know about it in under 5 minutes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Love it or hate it, duckweed is a part of aquarium life for so many people. In less than 5 minutes, we give you all the information you will ever need to either keep it alive, or get rid of it from your fish tanks.
Have a good one and happy fish keeping.
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Best video I've ever seen on Duckweed. I learned a ton very quickly. Everyone should watch this. Straight and to the point. Great info!
Thanks for your kind words and glad you really enjoyed it.
I was so confused why my duckweed doesn’t grow and only dies. I use hang on back filters and ugh now I know why it dies. Thank You for the information I do really appreciate it!
No worries, glad we could be of some help.
I’m glad I watched this video. I’m getting duckweed delivered today to add to my tank but I have a ton of water movement. High flow filter plus 2 air stones. I had planned to section off parts of my tank for the duck weed using corrals but I’m now thinking I may need to turn down my water movement at least until it gets established.
Awesome, glad you found this first. How is the duckweed going for you?
Actually you solved a mystery for me at the end of the video, my duckweed have recently been more translucent looking and a little brown in my perfecetly healthy tank, then I realised, I got a new HOB filter that created a lot of movement so thats probably it
Glad this video could help you! Check out some of our other videos and see if there is anything else of interest. The lives we do with guests has lots of great information in it.
I like duck weed, as Cam said increase the flow to control it. It looks good in a heavily planted tank, in my case with swordtails
Totally a time and a place type of plant. If that makes sense.
and if the apocalypse comes this stuff is edible and full of vitamins lol
Haha yes, and one thing we know for sure, it that the duckweed will not be affected in any weird situation like that.
Yeah, this stuff is amazing nutrient wise! One of the most concentrated sources of high quality, complete protein, one of the only plant sources of B12 (and lots of it), and generally one of the most nutrient dense foods around. A true super food in the category of spirulina, chlorella, egg yolks, organ meats, sardines with bones and skin, and A2 only milks (especially cultured versions like yogurt and kefir) from healthy, well treated animals.
But even then, duckweed is almost in a category in and of itself. You could almost live off this stuff indefinitely, if you can find some kind of carb source (potatoes, sweet potatoes, cattail root, grains/pseudo grains like amaranth, etc) around to supplement it.
Can't imagine it tastes the best, but I've heard if it is done right, you can get a fairly neutral taste.
This thread is actually what I was looking for about duck weed. Nutrient content. Somehow when nature makes a lot of something thing and it is annoyingly everywhere...it may be good medicine
i got suprise duckweed from something else. 10g tower tank running an ugf + box filter with filter foam, so relatively slow water flow. I had dwarf water lettuce as a floating plant and suspect the duckweed had hitched a ride on decor. over a couple weeks, the water lettuce all died off and the duckweed clumped up in the corners while hair algae expoded in the tank. Physically removed the algae and dialed my light time on from 12 hours to just 7. Hair algae has mostly cleared up. Tank has several anubias on driftwood, rim to rim duckweed, a shoal of 7 glowlight tetras and at least five bladder snails. Used to have a dwarf gourami in there too, but she only lasted 6 months.
Ahhhh classic surprise duckweed. I don't know much about water lettuce as we don't have it here, but I am well aware of how duckweed can take over other floating plants.
Sorry to hear you were having har algae issues, but great to hear you got it mostly cleared up.
planning on getting (giant) duckweed for my turtle. biggest complaint i hear about duckweed is that it grows too fast (so you can't get rid of it), but he will eat anything that floats, so no other plants last very long in his tank. i hope him and the duckweed form a nice equilibrium :)
Fingers crossed it goes to plan for you. Let me know how it works out
@@TheFishRoom I will!
from hawkes bay here, nice hearing a kiwi talk bout fish etc while I do my tanks 😂😂 hope you're all good man
Thanks for joining us fellow kiwi!
Thank youuuu, this was SO helpful for a novice like me
You are very welcome, glad it was helpful.
Top easy to keep floating plants. Best for breeding. Best sharing
Fantastic for breeding livebeerers.
Ah! You gave me an idea to "harvest" some for the birds that chill around here. I'm sure they'll like it.
Noice! I am sure they will love it
Appreciate ya, i just found some wild and now ill know how to keep it.
Awesome good luck!
Def love my giant duckweed, even tho is has consumed the entire top of my large bichir tank.
Haha, it will do that. But equally, it will be pulling out plenty of nutrients for you.
I had trouble keeping it for years. I finally made one of my takes a community aquarium. Now I can keep some. I still have my other tanks that have tilapia and a pond that has koi. Anything outside the community tank can’t keep it. The fish eat it within a few days.
Yea, got to be careful of fish eating it, 100% won't grow then lol.
I had duckweed cake for breakfast in Vietnam today.
What is the verdict, good eating?
@@TheFishRoom I had NO IDEA what duckweed was when was eating when I was eating it.....not 100% it was this kind of duckweed or something lost in translation.....it was kinda like a cold rice noodle with a very slight organic taste... I just did a deeper dive with Google and these aren't actually made from duckweed, just named duckweed and the resemble duckweed leaves, made from rice flour and formed in little cups...
I love duckweed but have never managed to get it to grow very fast. The way people talk about it it's like it's some feral beast that will take over yoir tank overnight, I've kep it in a couple different aquariums and my frog vivarium and it grows slower than literally everything else 😭 I have good lighting, very little surface agitation and fertilize, nitrates never drop below 5 so not like it's starving
Maybe it is because it is not getting enough nutrients to keep growing?
@@TheFishRoom I was fertilizing with 2hr aquarists number 3. Ended up swapping it out for Azolla and it grows much faster in there
I just got duckweed from a guy but he said it would take 2 weeks to fill half a tank. He did have his tank in airated tanks and there was very little light so I'm hoping by putting it in the sun it grows fast cause I want it for chickens and ducks.
Yeah it should be ok in full sun. I have grown it well in full sun before.
@@TheFishRoom I put some in a bucket with just water and it died, I put some in a natural pond tank and it lived. I don't think it likes the rain which can be very hard.
Cool vid thank you! Do you sell it too.
Yes we do
I have a 5 gallon tank with some house plants growing out of it (pothos roots, monstera adansonii, and tradescantia) I also want to grow floating plants but they seem to be dying off (even duckweed). How often should I be fertilizing the tank? I have a sponge filter so relatively low flow
If your plants are currently dying off, i suspect there isn't enough nutrients in the water for them to keep growing strongly. I would look at dosing a complete fertiliser once a week as a start and see if it improves the plant health after 4 or so weeks. if not, up the dose to twice a week for a few more weeks. If this doesn't help or you have adverse effects like algae, I will then try to problem solve for a different action. Thanks for being a part of TFR Family.
@@TheFishRoom Thank you for the advice! I followed it and upped my dosage and the floaters are surviving! Thank you again for your informative content!
@@anatshells No problem!
Can you feed it to poultry as scooped from the water, as is, or does it need some treating or drying first?
Although, I can't be 100% sure as I don't deal with poultry. But I suspect that you could just scoop it out and feed it out.
How about for turtles?
Most turtles will munch it back.
Hello, I am a big fan of your videos on TH-cam. I am a master’s student in environmental engineering from Iraq. I have research on the effectiveness of Duck Weed in treating wastewater, but the type of Duck weed is not known to me. Is it possible for me to send you a picture of my plant and give me its type, since you are very knowledgeable For botany with my sincere regards
You can send us a photo to our FB page if you want. However, we only have Lemna here, so it is probably all I will be able to recognise.
Hello, I have a water filter in my aquarium which makes little flow in the surface of the water. Not very much. But still noticeable. Will that condition is suitable for the growth of duckweed
Yeah I think that should be fine. Thanks for watching the video.
Hi there, thank you for the video/info. Got some questions, if you don't mind. I'm less interested in growing fish, but more the duckweed itself. I live in central VA where the climate is mostly moderate, and I plan to put some containers outside in mostly shade/partial sun. I was thinking that it might be a good idea to put a relative few fish in there with the duckweed as a food source (their poop), and in turn, I figured the fish could eat the duckweed and whatever insects or the like get in there.
Does this sound feasible, and what would be a good kind of fish to put in there? I don't want them to eat too much of the duckweed since I'm harvesting it (obviously I will keep the number of the fish down). I know that duckweed likes a high nutrient environment and before the fish start a'pooping enough, I figured I would put some good composted soil on the bottom to start up the nutrient process.
Any help/suggestions would be appreciated. Cheers.
That sounds very feasible. I am not 100% on the climate of central VA (or where that even is) but things like WCMM go well, or cherry barbs should work fine. I hope that helps you
@@justinw1765 I live in South Boston Virginia. My fishing ponds have become overgrown with duckweed. I been trying to control it because on days of very calm winds the entire surface of the ponds are covered. I believe this cuts off any photosynthesis and reduces oxygen for the fish and other vegetation. I have large mouth bass, crappie and bluegills which I enjoy catching and releasing. The fish as of now are super healthy. Nice fighting and beautiful color so it doesn’t seem to be a problem. If we get a slight breeze, the duckweed will blow to one side or the other, which allows good sunlight. I didn’t know anything about duckweed so I was concerned. Maybe for nothing.
@@johndelconte9915 Thank you for the info John.
Muje ye plant dona please paise se
ok
Really helpful! Thankyou
No problems at all