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does gibba need peat?

  • Thread starter Halt
  • Start date
My dad has a 75 gallon tank, with like 8 fish and a fish cleaner (the fish that eats algae but i forgot the name) + florescent lights for the fish
i was thinking of putting my soon to get U.Gibba in there.
From the savage garden, it says to use a cup of peat per gallon. is this really nessecary? o_O just wondering, if it is, i could probably put it in a cup of somewhere else. :)
thanks.
 
I think U. gibba needs t be in shallow water close to the bottom.
 
Be careful just dumping peat into an aquarium. It is very bouyant and will make a mess of your tank. You might want to consider putting peat in the bottom of an empty tank (prewet) and then putting some APS over it to keep it weighted and from floating around.

xvart.
 
I got some... I put some in a small tray in the g/h and a tiny bit (1/5th?) outside in a thing I had made to try aldrovandra in... the stuff inside the greenhouse I don't think has grown any- but is alive. The stuff in the container outside the g/h in a tank with peat under APS and a lilly planted in it (and bugs hanging out in there) has gotten really big and doing quite well. So, from that I would say yes. The peat helps. Of course it could be just a bigger container that gets warmer in the day / cooler at night or that bugs are in it to feed the plants or who knows what else :p
Andrew
 

This is the idea:


U. gibba grows in water only several centimeters deep. Examine a clump and you will see it consists mostly of green stolons which branch and intertwine to form a loose mat. This network comingles with the oozy muck of the pond bottom and anchors the plant underwater. Plants that grow like this are called affixed aquatics. Each stolon is several centimenters or more long and 0.2-1 mm thick. The stolons are terete (round in cross section). Rhizoids (small rootlike organs) may be visible hanging from the stolons especially near peduncle bases. They are only a few centimeters long.
 
If you want, you could also try to grow U. gibba in waterlogged peat. I heard that they flower when the water level is low.
 
I think the fish might eat it if you put it in your aquarium. As for peat, I've found it sinks more easily if you slowly pour boiling water over it, removing the excess water as it cools and repeating the process. I used the resulting tea-like water, rather than the peat itself, though I don't know how much it helped as my attempts weren't exactly a scientific study.
~Joe
 
I have seen a gibba-like Utric. in many tanks, in fact some fish people will tell you how bits of it ride in with other plants from commercial suppliers and just take off as weeds in their tanks. It seems to float around aimlessly as an unaffixed plant just eating and growing. Could this be macrorhiza? Isn't it really similar looking? I grew it for some time quite successfully in a bowl of water 4" deep with a fistful of peat settled in the bottom. Strangely however, I have recently found it growing in a slow moving creek here in central Texas, which is absolute limestone country. It's possible that the water is slightly acidic from dead leaves but the bed was of limestone so... I think this Utric. is a hardy weed, although when I put a chunk in my outdoor bog it fizzled (I think it was too much of a light shock going into full sun)
 
  • #10
I have seen a gibba-like Utric. in many tanks, in fact some fish people will tell you how bits of it ride in with other plants from commercial suppliers and just take off as weeds in their tanks. It seems to float around aimlessly as an unaffixed plant just eating and growing. Could this be macrorhiza? Isn't it really similar looking? I grew it for some time quite successfully in a bowl of water 4" deep with a fistful of peat settled in the bottom. Strangely however, I have recently found it growing in a slow moving creek here in central Texas, which is absolute limestone country. It's possible that the water is slightly acidic from dead leaves but the bed was of limestone so... I think this Utric. is a hardy weed, although when I put a chunk in my outdoor bog it fizzled (I think it was too much of a light shock going into full sun)

so, basically, they do not need peat, just an acidic source?
 
  • #11
I had mine in my CP "tray", sharing space with Endlers. They didn't seem to have any ill effects on the utric. It might actually be beneficial in case you have algae mixed in. The fish might do the utric a favor by eating the algae. Mollys are more the algae eating type, though. Just a thought...
 
  • #12
I was at the greenhouse yesterday so I pulled out the trusty camera phone and took some pictures of what I have going on with my U. gibba.... This is the small dish I have it in inside...

0102091259a.jpg


and here is the outside thing showing explosive growth and over all much better activity. It spread very fast once I introduced it! The water is probably close to a foot deep maybe just less than that. The pictures don't do justice for how much is in there....

0102091300a.jpg


0102091300b.jpg


0102091301a.jpg


Andrew
 
  • #13
Looks to me that aquatic utrics like this share similar habitats as do Aldrovanda.
 
  • #14
aldrovandra is what I built this set up for... although haven't had a chance to appropriately test it out. It has been said the container is too small to support aldrovandra for longer than a short period, but I can't help want to try it out still :)
Andrew
 
  • #15
I understand that Aldrovanda goes with the Phragmites. I'll be doing pretty much the same next year when I obtain replacements.
 
  • #16
I think the Ph and light issues are more important that having the plant affixed. After all, there are no roots. Mine went crazy in a white dishpan placed outside in broken sunlight under a bush. The peat surely helped keep the acidity up, but the plant itself just floated becoming more massive over time. I think that fish will eat your plant so be careful there.

Hey, this is post 5,555 for me......cool!
 
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  • #17
I've had luck with them in my aquariums. I acquired them through some aquarium plant purchases as tag-alongs. If their is plenty of light, and the fish don't mess with them (mine never do so, big cichlids or goldfish might though) you should be fine. The stuff can actually be a problem for me sometimes, it tends to wrap plants up.
 
  • #18
Well, the stuff I've been trying to grow since summer is sheathed in algae. I'm going to get some Daphnia and see if that will control the algae. I'd try snails but I'm afraid they might eat the U. gibba.
 
  • #19
where the heck do you get daphnia? i saw a white thing bouncing around in a water source but.. do you buy daphnia from... daphnia breeders? o_o
 
  • #20
Well, the stuff I've been trying to grow since summer is sheathed in algae. I'm going to get some Daphnia and see if that will control the algae. I'd try snails but I'm afraid they might eat the U. gibba.

I have some snails that coexist with U. gibba. They're gray and about the size of this smiley face: :-O

Unfortunately they don't eat the algae in sufficient amounts, so they're not really all that helpful...
 
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