Eventually the cat tails will kill out the lotus I am sure. They don't share well! You can TRY pulling them out by hand, but it can be difficult, but the longer you put it off the worse it will be. Might be easier to move the lotus!

Thanks derrick,
I just put in the lotus last spring. I'd rather have lotus than cattails, so I think I'll start pulling the cattails now. Should I just cut them off at their bottoms, so they won't disturb the lotus? I'm thinking it might take a couple years, but if I cut them all off for several years, surely they won't have any food to grow.
I'm beginning to think we should call our property "invasive acres"! Seems like everything wants to take over! thanks.

I've never tried it, but I assume if they are cut off repeatedly they would eventually completely die and the roots would just rot right in the ground.

Best of luck!

Haha........I was afraid your last post was someone saying "Oh, lotus and mini cattails grow GREAT together"......because I just came in from cutting them off! haha
I guess I just didn't want to believe it, but common sense should have told me that cat tails take over wherever they are, and it would be pretty hard for lotus leaves to grow among them. I do think they were helping to keep the water from getting too funky, while waiting for the lotus to sprout, but I can accomplish that with other plants that don't compete so much with the lotus.
Thanks for your help.

@derrickm

Thank you for the information. I’m having the same problem right now. Now i have to find a way to get rid of cattails .