A Plant Question

[russell]

On a daphnia collecting trip last week I can accross a bunch of water mint (Mentha aquatica) which i thoroughly sterilised when I came home, by cleaning in dechlorinated salt water.

Its a very attractive plant that is very fast growing.

It seems to me to be the perfect axy plant as its very strong, got a dense root structure and the leaves are very supportive.

Should I put it in and see what happens?

I know that it grows to roughly 90cm (36 inches) but I would keep on top of it by pruning.

Does anyone know if it is any way toxic to axolotls at all?

 

[Ed]

Mints contain pulegone or very close compounds (some of the main flavoring of mint) some of which can be toxic in excess. I don't have any good data on thier effects on amphibians..(see http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/jecmono/v46je10.htm )

On the other side, most mints require strong lighting to do well and grow (like direct sun for 6 hours or so a day) and this amount of strong lighting will probably heat the axolotl tank to an unacceptable level. If the light isn't provided then the plants may simply rot.

Ed

 

[oceanblue]

I've grown both water mint and water cress in a tank with the water level between 5 and 10 cm below the usual "full" fish level using two fluorescent tubes on a 12 hour cycle. Both grow well in hard water, at the moment I've only watercress with the axolotls. The heat penalty in this tank is 2.6 degrees Celsius warming with the lights on for the previous 10 hours. My current air cellar temperature is 17 degrees C and all looks well. A really thickly vegetated tank only needs water changes because the water goes brown. Ammonia nitrite and nitrate become vegetation. The tank becomes clogged with masses of roots but the axolotls seem to hunt through it eating planorbis snails. Axolotl droppings become mud. If you want to get away from the spartan look a muddy bottomed indoor pond works very well. If you grow watercress you can eat it as well. You need more than one fluorescent tube to grow most plants well but you do not need to cook the tank to get good growth.