Plant ID

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

Anybody know what kind of plant this is? Or if it's even a plant. The white fuzzy stuff I mean.
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/4783/fuzzywp8.jpg
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/8567/fuzzy2qj6.jpg

[daayda3]

java fern

[daayda3]

narrow leaf java fern:grinyes:

[Bk718]

hes talking about the hairlike things in the leaves

[daayda3]

:o oohh
well, its not a plant... my grandma had it, and she got a snail... its all gone now

[jaysen]

its black beard algae. nasty stuff. i am plagued with it. gonna get some siamese algae eaters since they are the only things that eat it and keep it under control.

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

Uh-oh. No wonder it was a free plant : P Time to cut some leaves and hope it doesn't spread I guess.

[jaysen]

hate to say it may be too late since it is in your water. instead of cutting leaves just put it in a 1:19 bleach mix for 3 minutes and it will kill the algae off its leaves without being amputated.

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

Oh? Too late : / Oh well.

If I bleach the plant for 3 minutes won't the plant kill my fish and shrimp when I put it back in my aquarium?

[Bk718]

Oh? Too late : / Oh well.

If I bleach the plant for 3 minutes won't the plant kill my fish and shrimp when I put it back in my aquarium?

the concentration of bleach:water is small so after the bleaching and rinsing it there shouldnt be any negative effect on your fish

[jaysen]

i do it to my plants, and my shrimp and snails arent bothered. to be safe i rinse the plants in fresh water for a bit and then i add some stress coat into the main tank just in case.

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

Oh ok. Thanks so much for all the info. I'll watch the plant for a week to see if there's any new algae growth. If there is, I'll go ahead and bleach my plants.

[midiamin]

its black beard algae. nasty stuff. i am plagued with it. gonna get some siamese algae eaters since they are the only things that eat it and keep it under control.

There are other fish that eat and control hair algae! A real easy one is the black lyretail molly.

[clogstonian]

i hate to inform you that this aglae is the FW version of herpes, once you've got, you've got it for the life (hope that's not offensive to anyone, except the algae). a single cell of this is all it takes when the conditions are right. i have been fighting it for years, all you can hope for is stasis. Bleaching plants and ornaments will very effectively remove it from surfaces but it's floating in the water column on a microscopic level. i have a 40gal with 4 SAE's, yes they'd occasional graze on it but not like my 9 yr old daughter at the movies with a bag of popcorn, more like a deer i the forrest nibbling the tender leaf shoots. now with that said, I've never tried mollys but I hear they are the goat of the aquarium and maybe they would take it down to the surface, SAE's definitely won't.

i recommend a good aquavacing and water change at the same time as the 1:19 bleach bath, knock it's population down . . . controlling it's nutrients and you control it . . kinda.

tolerance and acceptance, celebrate diversity . . .
but bleach that BBA to :devil:!!!

Good luck

[InTr4nceWeTrust]

That's really disappointing to know. I really wish I knew about this before I put it in my aquarium. I only rinsed the plant with faucet water before I put it in.

I looked it up and there are ways to eliminate it. It's going to be hard, though. I'm gonna need to tear down and redo my aquarium to get rid of it with a bleach wash. I don't know how I'm gonna remove the fish and shrimp without contaminating a hospital aquarium then recontaminating my main aquarium when I put them back in. Any ideas?

[jaysen]

i have bleached whole tanks repeatedly just to see it come back a few weeks later. its not easy to eliminate. i have given up on manually removing it. now i am getting the sae's. hope it works.

[tinkerman]

Bleaching is a temperary solution heres a link for algae control to get rid of it without stressing your plants or killing them. http://www.rexgrigg.com/Algae1.html
Injecting excel into a bottle over the affected plant will also help with out stressing the plant.