Just ended up with a JAVA FERN!! HELP!

[hcgirl80]

Ok, I went to petsmart today to get a microsword and a compact sword. I look at the prices and realize I don't have enough money to buy both so I decide on the compact sword. I ask the person there to get it for me and when I examine it on the way home I think it looks a bit odd for a compact sword but think nothing of it. I got home, put it in my tank, then, after ID-ing it on plantgeek.net, I realized that it is a JAVA FERN! I looked at the profile on plantgeek.net for a Java Fern and I see they are low-maintenance and so I want to keep it--And keep it alive, so will someone tell me some care basics on these guys?




~Paige

 

[daveedka]

I'm not an expert, and therefore love Java fern. attach it to a rock or driftwood, with a rubberband staple stick pin etc. Watch it grow. its a vey interesting plant IMO, and seems to be nearly impossible to kill compared to most. the plant does not feed through the roots, the roots are fuzzy tie downs, that will eventually attach themselves quite well to most things.
Dave

 

[hcgirl80]

Thanks for the quick reply dave, I would like to get a rock when we go to the LFS next week, do you think it will be too hardly attached then?

Thanks alot dave!
:bowing:

~Paige

 

[daveedka]

Usually take two weeks for it to get a good grip in my tank, and it will be a couple of months before it becomes unmovable at least according to Bruce the Royal Pleco its still moveable for the first two months. :laugh:
dave

 

[hcgirl80]

I know I can trust Bruce the pleco.

~Paige

 

[ChicoRaton]

Yeah java fern is interesting. a neat experiment would be seeing if it's possible to kill it...

I just attached mine to a stick of driftwood with a rubber band. after a couple weeks it's beginning to attach and grow more leaves and "babies". it's a very slow grower, though. even in 2wpg with daily nutrient dosing and c02 injection; far more than it requires. I'd think it'd take at least a couple months, maybe more, to double in my tank.

 

[TKOS]

I think that prolonged exposure to high temps when it is still young can quickly kill it. As I found out in my betta tank. But once they get all hardy and stuck down they certainly are tough and a great plant. Once the leaves start to age they get black speck on them and evetually turn brown. During this time they start to form little plantlets on the egdes that you can cut off (once you see good roots) and replant. I have some java fern tied to drift wood and some just stuck into the gravel. Either way seems to work well.

I like cotton thread to tie it down with as it evetually rots and I don't have to wrry about doing anything with it.

 

[hcgirl80]

Mine is stuck into the gravel and makes a lovely centerpeice for my little felix (my tiger barb, the rest of the school died)

I gotta go--be back later

~Paige

 

[chkltcow]

Yeah java fern is interesting. a neat experiment would be seeing if it's possible to kill it...

I just attached mine to a stick of driftwood with a rubber band. after a couple weeks it's beginning to attach and grow more leaves and "babies". it's a very slow grower, though. even in 2wpg with daily nutrient dosing and c02 injection; far more than it requires. I'd think it'd take at least a couple months, maybe more, to double in my tank.

Oh it's definately possible to kill it. I killed my first piece by burying the rhizome. It just kinda rotted away to nothing.

My most recent pieces though were added right after I set up my DIY CO2 injection. I have a piece of PVC in to make a little cave for my clowns to hide in and my kuhlis to hide under, so I just used a rubber band to strap the java fern to it. It's been about a month now, and it's beautiful to see all the bubbles on the bottoms of the leaves.... especially on what's supposed to be such a slow growing plant!

And the babies he talked about, here are mine:

The one chunk is immediately noticable, but all the other black dots further back on the leaves are also getting fuzzy roots.

 

[happychem]

Quite possible to kill with temperatures over mid 80s. My tank hit that for a couple weeks about a month and change ago, lost all my java fern, which had grown into a beautiful covering of nice emerald leaves covering my drfitwood, pearling all day. They all turned a sickly brown and started to decay.

Apparently (I've read a couple references both at thekrib and in Karen Randall's articles archived by Chuck Gadd) there are cases where java fern is subjected to something akin to crypt rot. I'm really hoping that that's what happened and that the plants will grow back from the rhizomes, still attached to the wood.

It does make a gorgeous plant when doing well though. I think that Len mentioned that it can do just fine in the substrate, just as long as you don't bury the rhizome.