Tiny white particles in roots?

[gatotsu77]

I have no idea what this stuff is... I thought it looked like micro-bubbles, and I have yet to determine what it really is, but on my java fern there is a lot of tiny white bubbles, or so it looks, all over the roots and even climbing the stems of the leaves. Does anyone have any clue as to what this might be? I suspect its not bubbles...

 

[plah831]

I know! My java fern that came with a huge, jumbled root structure has them too. They look like small white fungus. They actually resemble root nodules in terrestrial plants, where bacteria perform nitrogen fixation. Does that happen in aquatic plants?

 

[gatotsu77]

Honestly, I have no clue. I got the plant from a buddy of mine about 2 weeks ago, and when he snipped it off of his, the roots were covered in a bunch of random junk. (mostly brown, almost like excess waste... he hadn't siphoned his tank in a while, but the roots were not down in the gravel)

 

[Yoemen]

hmm

sounds like mycorizzae in terrestial plants that fixate nitrogen, but I have no clue really.

 

[gatotsu77]

I hate to bring up an older thread, but I finally found out what was going on with my java fern. (well, at least to some degree) It turns out that the tiny spots have turned into hair algae, and its growing quite proliferously on the leaves, and somewhat on the roots of my java fern. I noticed my female opaline gourami seemed to be eating the algae the other day, but when I got a bit closer and watched, I realized she was nibbling off pieces of the fern itself and spitting them out! She seems to be doing this to one of my anubias too. >_< @$%$&%&@#!!!! Oh well, everything else seems to be doing good, and its only a few leaves she's doing it to, so hopefully she won't go on a rampage and tear up the whole plant.