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My java fern is making babies like crazy. Right now I even have babies growing on babies. By that I mean a small plant.....say 1 inch leaves... is this normal?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Yes, that is pretty normal if one provides well for their Java Fern. Good job

Can you let us know what your tank parameters (light, tank size, ph, fertilizers if any, etc.) are so others can achieve the same success if they have a similar setup?

Thanks,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

40 Gallon Long
130W Coral Life 6700K
Flurish Sub. with regular gravel over it.

I don't know the ph. I really need to buy a test kit but I am a poor college kid.

Right now I have around 6 sets of babies and it kind of looks like I have some stuck in my filter intake too... maybe I should do something about that......

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

I have my java fern in my ten gallon... that one plant has been producing java babies since it settled into my tank, pretty much. I've got babies growing on the leaves and offshoots near the base of the plant as well.

I've got a 1/2 gallon java nano tank, two large "adolescent" javas in my five gallon (about half the size of the mother plant) and another half-grown java in the ten gallon with the mother plant. The half-grown ones are producing babies as well.

Nothing special about my tank, normal gravel, daylight bulb. *shrugs*

The java fern windelov in my 12 gallon seems to be picking up on the trend... I just got it and there's already some mini plants near the base of the plant.

Edit: picture of nano



Last edited by Kitten at 04-Oct-2005 11:42[/font]

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Yep compleatly normal. Although I've really only seen massive ammount of young like you describe come off right after a transport between tanks....possibly a stress reaction .
The ones that are in tanks with CO2 wait till the babies are larger till they have babies of their own. Personally I prefer that...the little plantlets are quite annoying and take forever to grow up and leave the tank !

If you have a spare tank that's not running filtration (say a betta tank) you can add all the plantlets that you have to extract from your intake into that tank till the rhizome is large enough to take the pressure of attaching it to some wood or rock.

^_^[hr width='40%']
"in any case, chocolate is hardly a rare comodity." said Chaos. "There are planets covered in the stuff"
REALLY?
"Indeed."
IT MIGHT BE BEST, said Death, IF NEWS LIKE THAT DID NOT GET ABOUT. ~ Theif of Time [link=Terry Pratchett]http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]

Sounds perfectly normal to me. I wouldn't worry about it... just enjoy the new plants.

All the babies that I have are not on the same plant... I have probably 3 or 4 big plants and 3 or 4 very small plants (leaves under an inch long). One of which has some baby babies growing on it.

I might be setting up a 20 gal. high here for guppy breeding. Might it be a good idea to add in my small plants?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Do you just drop the plantlets into the betta tank or do you try to get little pieces of gravel on 'em so they don't float? .. is it okay if they float?

Edit: I wait until my plantlets have three or so leaves that are about an inch and a half tall before taking them off the mother plant.

Last edited by bananacoladafuze at 05-Oct-2005 13:30

______________
Cake or death?

Adding live plants to a tank is always IMO a good thing. If you're thinking of using a sponge filter since its a breeding tank you likely wont have the same problems of plantlets getting sucked into the intake that you see with HOB's or canisters.
I suggest waiting for them to fall off the parent rather than pulling them off in advance.

^_^[hr width='40%']
"in any case, chocolate is hardly a rare comodity." said Chaos. "There are planets covered in the stuff"
REALLY?
"Indeed."
IT MIGHT BE BEST, said Death, IF NEWS LIKE THAT DID NOT GET ABOUT. ~ Theif of Time [link=Terry Pratchett]http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]

I have been letting them fall off when ever they feel like it. Some of them are quite small though....

??? IMO ???? Help me out here.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

In My Opinion

I let them fall too, or remove then once they get past 1.5"

I then strap them to driftwood or rocks (using cable ties, but i'm lazy most people use nylon or cotton or fishing line)

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I have had one on a piece of driftwood for about 3 months and its still not growing on there. Is there a trick to this? I am using a rubber band.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

I bought one Java Fern windelov about 2 months ago, and now I got too much baby plants. Need to find someone to give them to. Its cool at first, but wait till you have too many

if there is a trick to it, i have found it by fluke only once.

the other 30 odd plants are simply strapped on!

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

I've had so many javaplantlets to deal with over the years *theatrical sigh* . What I've noticed is that they tend to like to be told exactly where they're supposed to root.

For instance the ones I run a twisty tie around on a pice of driftwood takes forever and a few years to latch onto the wood, whereas the ones that are firmly tied down with cotton thread or fishing line attach themselves rather quickly. Unfortunatly if you do it too young I've ended up damaging the rhyzome ...they dont like that. Using a twisty tie really is much faster than dealing with thread and line :%)....but done too young with ties and it must seem to the plant that it's burried as I've had them rot .

^_^ [hr width='40%']"So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind.
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time...
It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right
[link=I hope]http://babelfish.qwertydigital.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] you had the time of your life"[/font]