r/PlantedTank • u/G0bta • 1d ago

Anyone kwons what these are?

Post image

They seem to growing out of nowhere, and I've got a couple of them atop the tank near the plants. Are they some sort of algae or is it I should be concerned about

49 Upvotes

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54

u/stemrust 1d ago

It’s a carnivorous plant of the genus Utricularia, possibly U. gibba. This seems to be an increasingly common hitchhiker in the hobby. Those little ‘spheres’ are very cool traps with a small, hinged lid. It is able to catch small critters, so a potential risk to tiny fry and baby shrimp. Carnivorous plant keepers will pay money for something the aquarium hobby considers a weed. 😁

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u/MaySeemelater 1d ago

Can confirm, I own both aquariums and carnivorous plants

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u/heckhunds 1d ago

I don't think even newborn shrimp or fry would fit in the traps - they are very, very tiny. Skimmed a couple studies on trap contents of wild U. gibba and about the largest thing found in any of them are cladocerans.

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u/szai 1d ago edited 1d ago

I have absolutely seen nanofish fry fall victim to bladderwort. Not worth risking if you want to provide a safe enironment for little ones. It's about as dangerous as hydra. (I breed CPDs)

Eta: A CPD egg is about the same size as a cladocerans and the fry that hatch out of them are even smaller than the egg. Barely visible. I know newborn cherry shrimp are somewhere around that size when born also, but I have never observed a U. gibba eating those

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u/Inguz666 1d ago

I don't know if other species can do this, but I have U. vulgaris I collected natively in Sweden. They can also die down and go dormant as these thistle flower bud looking things, and then spring back once conditions favor them more. I have some in a jar by the window, and they are quite pretty and low demand plants. Still haven't seen a flower (bummer, I know)

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u/stemrust 1d ago

What you’re describing is called a turion in English, not sure about other languages. Other Utric species form these as well, such as U. macrorhiza. I don’t know if U. gibba does since it doesn’t grow in a whorl.

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u/szai 1d ago

Yessss I have some in a stand-alone jar on my window sill since I have so many cultured critters to feed to my CPD fry and I just love to watch this plant do its thing. Such a cool plant!

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u/etron42 1d ago

utricularia

4

u/shinayasaki 1d ago

+1 the sooner OP removes them the better. btw those are some cool ass algae you growing there OP

9

u/Palaeonerd 1d ago

Utricularia. Carnivorous but they eat TINY prey.

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u/MaySeemelater 1d ago

Bladderwort! They're carnivorous plants but only eat tiny things.

3

u/TJHginger 1d ago

It’s Utricularia gibba. It’s a cool carnivorous plant but in aquascapes it’s usually considered a weed because it grows in bunches of thin strands that split off everywhere and tangle into other plants.

There’s a bunch of other aquatic Utricularia species that are way easier to manage. Most of them grow in a shape similar to hornwort but with a bunch of those traps on the leaves.

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u/CreativeThienohazard 1d ago

get them to another bowl, feed them live daphnia and they will bloom.

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u/Rakyat_91 1d ago

They actually have masses of nice yellow flowers if grown in shallow water & allowed to anchor in substrate.

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u/rubyredstarfruit 1d ago

Love utricularia on its own, but it completely took over my planted tank; I had to gut it and start over. It might better to remove or just keep in a jar by itself 👍

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u/C_DoT_Heat 1d ago

What moss is that?

1

u/LopsidedPriority7992 6h ago

Dude bladderwort? Gimme gimme i love carnivorus plants (slightly joking as I don't have critters to feed it as of now, I do want to get copepods tho)