# Shrimp eating frogbit?



## Symplicity

Does anyone face this issue? All my frogbit is dying with holes in it. I can see under the petals, shrimp eating away at the underbelly of the petal. Few days later their is a hole in it and the petal dies.

Are shrimp OK to eat frogbit? Are there any negative effects besides the plant dying off? I couldnt figure out why my frogbit was dying but now I am certain its because of the shrimp.

Anyone have the same exP?


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## getochkn

It's either too much light/flow or nutrients with frogbit. The shrimp aren't eating huge holes in the leaves of fresh plants, they only eat dying leaves or blanched veggies. Frogbit likes rather still water, can't have too much light and if it is high light, it will need additional nutrients to help it. It does best in my community tank and my dwarf frog tank because of the amount of extra nitrate/food/poop that those tanks create and they aren't that high light. I also dose ferts in my community tank. In a shrimp only tank with no ferts, inert gravel, very littlebioload and therefore low food/poop/nitrates, it has a harder time growing. Duckweed is like a weed and needs very little. lol.


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## Dman

I have frogbit in many tanks, and the only ones it didn't do well with were the freshly started ones, I have them in a 70 gallon with co2 and they grow so fast the roots are actually touching the bottom and grabbing plants and pulling them up, they all spin together making it look like a tornado  but I rather large duckweed over frogbit now that I've have both


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## splur

Yeah, typically I found the frogbit with holes in it were ones that were already dying. I had like 90% of my frogbit die on me because of too much current in combination with snipped roots, but after having them stuck in a more stationary area, they grew back pretty quickly. I cut them a bit lower now, just requires more frequent maintenance.

Unfortunately all my water lettuce died... except for one little one that won't grow any bigger.


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## randy

I also think the leave dies before shrimps get to it. I like frogbit.

At first I couldn't keep them alive, but now they are stablized (thanks to default's help), I have to cut the roots every week or two otherwise they stick into substrate, moss, and everything else and gets messy.


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## Fishfur

Snails will eat frogbit.. I've seen pond snails munching on it.. though they seem to prefer the older leaves that are starting to yellow. But not shrimp.. I've had frogbit crowding itself out of a tank with shrimp and they never touched it.


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## Symplicity

Here is a puzzler then. 

My frog bit is dying off super fast, yet the roots grow a full 6" a week! I trim the roots weekly! Yes the leaves die off still with holes and start turning brown ... eek :s 

there isnt much current in the water and they generally stay in the same area all week


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## randy

Symplicity said:


> Here is a puzzler then.
> 
> My frog bit is dying off super fast, yet the roots grow a full 6" a week! I trim the roots weekly! Yes the leaves die off still with holes and start turning brown ... eek :s
> 
> there isnt much current in the water and they generally stay in the same area all week


Mine was like that until they settled down in 2 months. Lots of light helps. Now they are settled down, they stay green even for those not getting a lot of lights. The ones that do get enough light grow roots like crazy, thick hairy roots that need to be trimmed every 7 to 10 days (I cut them to about 2" and they'd touch the bottom if I leave them uncut for 10 days, tank is 14" deep).


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## Fishfur

What sort of light have you got over them ? When I first got frogbit I had them in a 30 G with a standard one tube hood that fit pretty tight.. and basically, only the back of the tank got light.. the front didn't get much at all. As the plants were moved around by the current, they'd get stuck in the front and most of them died within a few weeks time.. turning yellow, then brown.. then, just gone !

I was given a few more and those I placed in a 5 G that has a simple clamp light fixture over it. Round polished aluminum reflector about 8 inches diameter with a cord and switch.. cost around $15 bucks at Home Depot. In the fixture I used a 23 Watt spiral type compact flourescent bulb, rated for 6500 K.. they're called Daylight. Not very expensive, especially if you buy them in a four bulb box.

Once I had the frogbits under this lamp, they flourished..some developed pretty purple brown streaks on the leaves, they grew like mad, long roots, lots of babies, and started climbing over themselves, it got so crowded. Only difference in the way I handled them was the light. All other parameters were the same as in the 30 G tank.. but the light seemed to make all the difference to them. Still does.. they are still growing like weeds.


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## Mlevi

Fishfur said:


> What sort of light have you got over them ....


I had the same thing happen. I scored some frogbits from fishyfishyfishy here, and under the standard tube in my 15gal, they were going black and melting. Changed to two 15 Watt CFL 6500K bulbs, and they're thriving! The only other thing I did different, was create a 'calm area' on the surface of the tank, by putting a barrier (two drinking straws joined together from front to back, and held in place by a suction cup - roughly divided the tank into half) so that the 'current' from my eheim spray bar did not tumble the frogbits and duckweed.


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## default

ive grown them in dfferent setups.
medium/high light - high ferts or water column nutrients - and moderate to slow water movement seems to grow them the best.
high light = smaller more pale to yellowish green leaves
low light = bigger and more green leaves

when i see shrimps eating them normally i dont mind, as long as they grow faster than the consumption time. however most bottom portion leaves usually start to yellow or brown and depending how how packed or depleted your waters are they would get only worst.

what i would recommend - take all them out, take off all the dying or yellow leaves, trim the roots and place them back in. if your lights are high enough just add ferts and maintain the tank you normally do. just see if the situation improves or gets worst.

these plants are built like tanks.


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## Egonsgirl

Hey Simplicity, hows it going..... I was pretty sure my shrimp were eating my frogbit too... the plants were fairly small, and I kept seeing shrimp upside down muching on them. There were amano and yellows in there at the time. Not sure what to believe...lol


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