Which animals eat Eichhornia crassipes (common water hyacinth) ?

Answer 1

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a floating aquatic plant with bright green, waxy leaves and attractive, violet flowers that have yellow stripes on the banner petals. These plants tend to form mats on the water surface. Sometimes water hyacinth can be found growing in muddy soils near the edge of an aquatic system. The leaves are arranged in a rosette. The leaf stem usually is somewhat to completely swollen and filled with spongy tissue and thus acts as a float. In plants anchored in mud, the leaf stem tends not to be swollen. The blade of the leaf is oval to round and usually much smaller than the leaf stem
The domestic goose has been helping man through the centuries to a greater extent than most people realize. They served as a source of writing quills, a source of feathers for stuffing mattresses, pillows and down-insulated coats and vests, as well as providing meat for the table. Near the turn of the century there were more geese raised than turkeys or ducks and it has been reported that more goose than turkey was served at the first Thanksgiving due to the Pilgrim's customs while in England.
Domestic geese have been used for weeding a variety of crops and to keep fence rows, nurseries, irrigation ditches and other inaccessible areas clean. In Florida's warm climate the rapid growth of waterweeds is a continual problem. Some biological, chemical and mechanical controls have been successful but some have had undesirable side effects. Utilization of the plants as a feedstuff for geese would be more desirable and efficient than their disposal as waste.

The water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), originally a South American plant, is among the ten most notorious weeds in the world and is capable of doubling its mass in 14 days. Development of nutritional management techniques that would maximize water hyacinth consumption by geese was the objective of research conducted.
Water hyacinth can quickly dominate a waterway or aquatic system because of rapid leaf production, fragmentation of daughter plants, and copious seed production and germination. It degrades habitat for waterfowl by reducing areas of open water used for resting, and when decomposing it makes water unfit for drinking. It displaces native aquatic plants used for food or shelter by other wildlife species.

Water hyacinth causes problems for humans by obstructing navigable waterways, impeding drainage, fouling hydroelectric generators and water pumps, and blocking irrigation channels. By 1975 nearly 700,000 hectares of waterways in Louisiana alone were infested, and rivers were blocked for distances of forty kilometers. Agricultural production in California’s Central Valley was threatened at one point because of an 80 percent reduction in the efficiency of irrigation channels and pumping equipment. From one district alone, 20,000 truckloads of the weed were removed from waterways in 1981-82. The problem has diminished markedly in recent years as a result of control efforts (Parsons 1992).

The protected water within mats of water hyacinth makes ideal breeding sites for mosquitoes and other vectors, which, in tropical countries, increases the danger of malaria, schistosomiasis, and other diseases (Parsons 1992).

Water hyacinth increases water losses from lakes and rivers because of the plant’s high transpiration rate, calculated to be almost eight times the evaporation rate of open water surfaces (Parsons 1992). It changes water quality beneath the mats by lowering pH, dissolved oxygen, and light levels, and increasing CO2 tension and turbidity (Penfound and Earle 1948; Center and Spencer 1981). This affects the health of fish, while decaying plants make water unfit for drinking by humans, livestock, and wildlife.

The weed is a major concern in other countries as well. It has resulted in tremendous losses annually in fish and paddy rice production in India. In the Sudan it had infested over 3,000 kilometers of rivers by 1979, resulting in an estimated 10 percent loss in the normal flow of the Nile River and costing more than $3 million per year in control efforts
years of research to find insect biocontrols has resulted in the successful introduction of two water hyacinth weevils, which are believed to be keeping water hyacinth under maintenance control in many places; however biocontrol fish which are able to control submersed plants are ineffective against the floating water hyacinth

Answer 2

i get this question at school do vegans eat animal crackers do vegetarians eat animal crackers i was raised a vegetarian and my mum lets me eat them sooo ya go ahead eat as many as you want just dont be sick and eat only the heads or put them through a grinder or something lol and if anyone gives you crap about being or going veg tell them to shup up its a great life style and eating meat is sick anyway that quote from my father can do wonders for ya!!

Answer 3

Hippos

Answer 4

Manatees

Answer 5

River otters,hippos,iguanas,fishes,platypus,etc.