You probably won't ever add any fish but it would be interesting to see how the UG would react to the absence of micro fauna. Do you reckon it would make a big difference?
Hard to say, won’t add stock to a 45F as it’s a glorified vase.
The whole point of this little exercise was to understand UG with as few variables as possible.
@dw1305 pointed out some good papers regarding UItricularia sp. and their potential consumption of micro algae (and bacterium I think). Would have to revisit that to be sure.
Point is there’s more to it’s diet than things that swim and have locomotion. It’s thick mat does provide habitat to entice those sort of food stuffs in and gives a false sense of security. The video footage that is on the web puts it in high flow water. Not on the floor necessarily, but clinging to rocks in the current. Know that the bladders are fast, they would have to be to catch anything floating by at that speed, even if it is locally reduced. Makes algae and bacteria a more profitable general diet by hit rate in fast flow. This is speculation though.
Back to your question, would fish make a big difference? In a tank… fish will eat everything they can. In this tank there aren’t alternative areas beyond the UG mat for fish to predate, so would expect it could screw the pooch so to speak.
It grows back pretty fast currently. Removing one of the food sources by any means is putting the UG on a restricted diet. May not kill it necessarily but wouldn’t expect the level of repeated growth being experienced so far.
Still looking for other tanks with UG growing over a timescale of years. Not come across any yet but not looked very hard. Someone must be growing the stuff longer term. They would be the person to ask really.
