Elodea

[RosalieM]

I am led to believe that elodea is no longer available. Does anyone know the name of a good substitute? The purpose is to look at the cells from the very top leaves which are very small. I don't know much about pond weed... I guess anything with a similar structure will work. If there are no ideas I'll just ask the person at the pet shop tomorrow. Would be nice to have an idea of what I am looking for though!
Rosalie

[kimm]

Hi Rosalie,
I am just curious, Why is Elodea no longer available?? I have big cement tanks outside stocked with fish and stacks of elodea growing happily in there.

[RosalieM]

Maybe it's just a NSW thing. I think it has been classified as a noxious weed... Too many people have just thrown it out into dams and rivers. I am happy to be corrected though! I'll ask at the pet shop when I go.

[Sassi]

Elodea is classified as a noxious weed! Elodea is an introduced species to Australia, and as you wrote Kimm you have stacks of elodea growing, well thats the reason its banned (for lack of better word), becasue it grows so readliy everywhere!!! Thus it is taking over our waterways and in turn knocking out our native weeds, very bad I am fairly sure same goes for all of Australia, although it may not be as big of an issue in QLD as elodea is a temperate/cold water species. No need to get ridd of it though, keep it in your tank, but be very careful when disposing of the weeds, we dont want to polute our precious waterways

Sassi

[rae]

Good Morning All,

The substitute for elodea is Hydrilla. It looks very similar to elodea. The leaves are slightly smaller and more serrated. I sourced it from my local pet shop and now have it growing in my fish tank. The teachers were very happy with it as an alternative.

Lorrae

[kimm]

I had a distant memory of somebody telling me it was a noxious weed - at least it is in good company as it is keeping our noxious fish happy. I'll make sure neither of the criiminals escape.
thanks for the info.