How hardy is java fern?

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bozco

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Dec 4, 2003
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I started my planted 33gal after christmas. Plants went in before fish. I was told to start with easy plants like java fern and hornwort. I skipped the hornwort and went for hygrophila and penyywort instead, and did the java fern. Then I was sold some red combamba as hornwort. The person at the store thought it was hornwort but I checked my book and it was red combamba. Not sure I'm spelling that right) so I read about this, and was told by so many people to stay away from it until I knew how to take care of plants. So here is what happened. My java fern died instantly and my red combamba just kept growing. It even bloomed! So the plant that was supposed to be bombproof is dead and the combamba needed to be cut back because it was growing as fast as the hygrophila. And yes I'm sure its not hornwort because I took some to check with the combamba at another store.
So is java fern really that hardy? It doesn't seem to do very well in my tank. I tied it to my driftwood like I was told. I have one 'fish bulb' and one plant buld on my canopy and everything does well but the java fern.
 
people always say so, but you know what, i've had the same experience. my java fern sucks. they look wonderfully bright and green until they get about 2 inches in size then they darken up and get kinda crispy...that's the only way i can describe it. i have them in a tank that gets about 1.5w/g (well 2w on one side, and 1w on the other haha), and my vals and other plants are bright and robust...but the java fern is a bust for me. must be something in our water.
 
Strange.. I can't seem to kill my java fern... when one leaf dies, there are fifty billion plantlets on another, and it has taken over my tank... not that I mind, I think it's kinda cool.

Maybe you just didn't get healthy plants?

Editing to say that just like a land fern, it gets brownish edges when the leaves are full grown... but it doesn't look bad to me, just a coloration of the plant.
 
I mean its dying as in it has holes in the leaves, huge chunks missing like someone came and took a bite. I don't have fish that big, and it started to die before the fish. I dunno. Well I impress people with the difficult plants, maybe I'm just some kind of backwards lucky.
 
Hmmm... noticing holes?

Have you looked at the back of the leaves to see if you have plantlets? One of mine acts like that occasionally--gets big cuts in the leaves like my cons have been picking at it... but if I look at the back of the leaf, 9 times out of 10, there is a plantlet hanging on where the leaf is ripped.

Just a thought :)
 
Got the same problem here. Java fern was the first thing I tried, having only incandecent lights (a mistake I won't repeat). Can't get the durn things to look nice. Some leaves look ok, but others have lots of black and some are going transparent at the tips. Gaah! When I got them from the LFS they started putting off plantlets on the leaf tips. Apparently they do that when stressed, which my tank was then. Ah well, at least they aren't really dieing so much as just not appearing to flourish.

But hey, if you got cabomba workin' for you, good show. It was either on the Krib or Karen Randall who said something along the lines of everyone being able to find something that will grow for them, and hey, you got a tough one to work, cheers.
 
Just a thought...did you bury the rhizome of the plant? There is a thick section at the bottom that must not be buried in gravel. The rhizome is just above the roots. For these kinds of plants (java fern, bolbitis, and anubias) you can bury their roots but not the rhizome.
 
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