Red Aldrovanda

[arvin555]

Infurita thanks for sharing, we have almost the same growing conditions, though I have some Horse tails and cattails in my small container as "monocots" companion plants

I too have problem with U Gibba, in fact I hate them being in the same container as the Aldros as they can dominate the whole container, I had to tear them up to trim them off.

Why do you put Mossie Pellets in your container? Is it precaution?

The reason I ask is because I am 100% sure that Aldros can eat Mossie larvae. All my containers that have Aldrovanda, never, ever had Mosquito larvae in it. Aldros also eat waterboatmen beetles very well.

If you are up to it, try not putting any mossie pellets in the water and see if there are mossie larvae that will grow, chances are they will never reach maturity. My containers also do not contain any fish only plants and snails, snails also make good food for aldros. Never have had them flower myself and mine are all green

TTFN
Arvin

[rsivertsen]

Cool! The Australian strains are a LOT easier to grow than the green Japanese strains! Just give them plenty of monocot companion plants so that their roots give off enough CO2 and have the excess nitrogenous waste matter quickly absorbed and assimilated before algae attacks it, and enough zooplankton to supply a steady meal for them, which includes snails that pull out the spent and digested carcasses which also gets hit with algae. You might try to throw in some clay when you get the chance. - Rich

[Ifurita]

Originally Posted by arvin555

Infurita thanks for sharing, we have almost the same growing conditions, though I have some Horse tails and cattails in my small container as "monocots" companion plants

I too have problem with U Gibba, in fact I hate them being in the same container as the Aldros as they can dominate the whole container, I had to tear them up to trim them off.

Why do you put Mossie Pellets in your container? Is it precaution?

The reason I ask is because I am 100% sure that Aldros can eat Mossie larvae. All my containers that have Aldrovanda, never, ever had Mosquito larvae in it. Aldros also eat waterboatmen beetles very well.

If you are up to it, try not putting any mossie pellets in the water and see if there are mossie larvae that will grow, chances are they will never reach maturity. My containers also do not contain any fish only plants and snails, snails also make good food for aldros. Never have had them flower myself and mine are all green

TTFN
Arvin

No luck on my part getting rid of U. gibba. It kept coming back even after removal, so I stopped trying in the end. The mozzie pellets are more for the benefit of the AVA personnel who come to check every now and then. When the see pellets, they get less cranky and won't try to pour the water away even though there aren't any larvae there. My Aldrovanda have not flowered for me before either, but then again, they're fighting for space, so many of the strands aren't too long. Wish I could get cattails to plant, can't seem to find any in any nursery around here. Perhaps you've got a green strain of Aldrovanda instead? That might explain why they're still green.

Originally Posted by rsivertsen

Cool! The Australian strains are a LOT easier to grow than the green Japanese strains! Just give them plenty of monocot companion plants so that their roots give off enough CO2 and have the excess nitrogenous waste matter quickly absorbed and assimilated before algae attacks it, and enough zooplankton to supply a steady meal for them, which includes snails that pull out the spent and digested carcasses which also gets hit with algae. You might try to throw in some clay when you get the chance. - Rich

I've not tried the Japanese strains before, but the strain I've got is relatively easy to keep alive. Giving them companion plants, zooplankton, snails and clay...that's the tricky part. I can't seem to get any of those...and on the rare occasion I can get some zooplankton, I can't seem to keep them alive. Gah.

[arvin555]

Seriously someone from AVA actually goes to your house to "audit" you? Because of what? Because they know you have nepenthes and stuff? Or because they know you have a pond? etc? Sorry luckily we don't have that type of "big brother" where I live, I am curious how they actually manage to find time to visit people's houses like that.

If they see a fish in your pond, will they leave your pond alone?

I just feel that it is a shame that your Aldros are not able to catch natural prey like Mosquito larvae.

Regarding zooplankton, I assume that you are talking about Daphnia or Moina? I'm sure Aldros will love those, but yeah a bit difficult to keep a culture going, mine just crashed I am able to keep them for 4 months at a time, though during rainy season not easy, also stinks coz I feed them rabbit poo.

Anyways if you are able to catch some waterboatmen beetles in your local pond, then you can try to "culture" them as well. Waterboatmen actually just turned up in some of my containers, so I catch some and feed them to my aldro. But as Rich mentioned, Snails, pond snails, ramshorn snails will be good companions and food for your aldrovanda.

Yes I am sure that my aldro did not come from Australia The origin actually is very colorful, it's from Bactrus who got it from Lim or from Rich, if from Lim, then Lim got it from Rich as well So Rich is the great great grand father

[Ifurita]

The AVA will come and check everyone in the whole area, especially if they see plants. They'll also cause all kinds of trouble if not stopped, like emptying pitchers, punching holes in them, etc. They will usually leave fish containers alone tho. Thankfully they can be stopped from emptying out water containers or adding chemicals if you show them mozzie pellets and that they're in use.

I can't seem to keep a culture of any zooplankton alive and obtaining anything other than Daphnia is difficult. Snails can be obtained from an aquarium shop if I'm lucky, but anything else...heh. There certainly isn't a pond anywhere near my area, especially not one which isn't filthy and polluted. I can't remember the last time I saw a waterboatmen outside of captivity.

I think I've got a few strains of Aldro in my container, some turn red and some don't, some grow well and others not so much...

[arvin555]

Gosh Big brother!! I wonder if you can just put a sign.. "contains carnivorous water plants and Mossie pellets" to deter big brother from bothering your pond?

I just realized that if you culture daphnia, you will still have the same problem with the AVA, because you sure can't put a fish with the daphnia culture, and yes sometimes my culture will get some mossie larvae, which gets fed to my fish or aldro anyway. Not sure but I think putting mossie pellets with the daphnia culture will work, in fact the daphnia will eat the bacteria that is contained in those pellets, but yeah hard work.

So your best bet is to get a few snails, ramshorn snails are in my opinion the safest. You only need a few adults, as the adults will not be eaten by the aldros, only the very small ones fit the trap and gets eaten.

TTFN
Arvin

[Ifurita]

Originally Posted by arvin555

Gosh Big brother!! I wonder if you can just put a sign.. "contains carnivorous water plants and Mossie pellets" to deter big brother from bothering your pond?

I just realized that if you culture daphnia, you will still have the same problem with the AVA, because you sure can't put a fish with the daphnia culture, and yes sometimes my culture will get some mossie larvae, which gets fed to my fish or aldro anyway. Not sure but I think putting mossie pellets with the daphnia culture will work, in fact the daphnia will eat the bacteria that is contained in those pellets, but yeah hard work.

So your best bet is to get a few snails, ramshorn snails are in my opinion the safest. You only need a few adults, as the adults will not be eaten by the aldros, only the very small ones fit the trap and gets eaten.

TTFN
Arvin

To be honest, most of them wouldn't believe the sign and will check because they're paid to do so, plus most of them probably don't even know there are carnivorous water plant in existance.

The problem with snails is that many of them don't seem to like water that is even slightly acidic and I've even had some die on me before...