Is this Frogbit healthy enough to ship out to a friend? It use to be more vibrant, but now has gone yellow & browned?

[OrkShrimp]

Hi guys.

Lately I'm having trouble with my frogbit. Months ago it was thriving. Rapidly growing, and were pretty green for the most part. The roots would grow so crazy to the point where they'll be all the way down to the bottom of the tank, and if I trimmed them, in days would rapidly grow again.

Nowadays, they aren't doing as well like they use to. Growing much slower (if they even are still growing), roots barely drop & grow long, and they're much more brown, and yellow on the top. I don't understand why. I don't know if it's because the tank use to be facing a window, and the sunlight was growing them nicely + the high temps, or if it's because there just isn't much nitrate at all now since my betta passed away. Just a couple of neo shrimp and a lot of pond/bladder snails. The tank also got moved to a darker basement kitchen, which is colder too, because of renovations.

I want to get them growing again, but my biggest question is, are they OK to be shipped? And do they look healthy-strong enough to be shipped? A friend of mine would like some but they live way out, so I can't actually drop them off like I use to. I'm worried about them either all dying, or looking awful, or do they look alright? Would love some help.

Any ideas?

 

[GHNelson]

Hi
Welcome to the UKaps!
I wouldn't send the Amazon frogbit....they just don't seem healthy enough!
You need to thin out the best floaters....do 25% water change ever few days....best if you dose some sort of All in One fertilizer!
Snails will lay batches of eggs on the underside of the frogbit and cause damage.
Also if you have a tank cover/hood condensation drips will damage the frogbit causing holes.
They look pale and without stripes....which is a sure sign of low Nitrate Levels!

hoggie

 

[MichaelJ]

Hi @OrkShrimp The poor state of your frogbit is likely due to nutrient (Macro) deficiency. The fact that the roots were growing really long suggest that the plants are struggling with nutrient uptake. What is your dosing regime (especially NPK) and what is the state of the submerged plants in the tank? Can you post a full tank shot (FTS) ?

I wouldn't ship those out - they are in a bad shape.

Welcome to UKAPS!

Cheers,
Michael

 

[GHNelson]

A mix of floating plants with 30ppm Nitrate!

hoggie

 

[MichaelJ]

Frogbit, duckweed and Pennywort... somewhere around 20-30 ppm of NO3 and plenty of light (12 hours/day).

 

[OrkShrimp]

Hi guys, I'll take a photo of the full tank sometime tomorrow. I don't use any ferts or anything, but I did order something called ThriveS, here.

I think I may also be leaving the lights on a tad too long, because I had them on at 7 AM, then, I didn't get home by ~9-11 PM. So, I think that could be contributing. I'll possibly do a wc tomorrow too, just been nervous since the shrimp are so fragile.

 

[Wookii]

Hi guys, I'll take a photo of the full tank sometime tomorrow. I don't use any ferts or anything, but I did order something called ThriveS, here.

I think I may also be leaving the lights on a tad too long, because I had them on at 7 AM, then, I didn't get home by ~9-11 PM. So, I think that could be contributing. I'll possibly do a wc tomorrow too, just been nervous since the shrimp are so fragile.

Your plants need food in the same way fish and shrimp do. Plants that aren't fed will die and rot as your frogbit is currently. Healthy, actively growing plants will improve the water quality for your shrimp, whereas unhealthy dying plants will actively reduce the water quality for your shrimp.

The Thrive S should be fine as a starter 'all-in-one' fert, so start dosing that immediately as soon as you have it and following the 3-4 times weekly dosing instructions, and manually remove all the bad leaves from your frogbit, and they should soon start putting out fresh leaves.