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Leaves falling off, holes and scratches appearing etc etc etc....

WHY?

I was told that java fern was the easiest to grow and look after but so far I have had nothing but problems. First I tried to attatch it it a piece of wood for about 3 weeks and it floated off before the roots could grow. So after that I got sick of it and just semi-buried the roots. Since then holes have appeared and little black lines. New leaves are growing but it looks so ugly!!! When I bought it, it looked clean and green, now its brown, sickly green and algae is growing on it!

Any ideas? Should I get rid of it and try and new plant? In my experience the plants are harder to look after than the fish (due to not much free time lately) so is there a durable plant that I should have instead with Clown Loaches?

Thanks!

Hi,
You did not give much information but it sounds like a
couple of things. First, you should have around 1 watt
or more per gallon of light.

The plant is a slow grower, so if algae is present, it
will out grow the plant. You will need to large water
changes to keep your nitrates down to a reasonable value
and keep the lights to a max of 10 hours/day.

Your plants will go into shock when you move them and
they will normally "die off" a bit and then grow back.
Trim off the dead and dying leaves. The plant will grow
best if you tie the plant to the driftwood with some
black thread. Black will match the root color and
decays over a few months. That is long enough for the
plant to start back up again and to attach itself to
the wood.

Check out this site for the nutrient defficiency that
could be causing your leaf problems:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

To me it sounds like your Java Fern has sexually matured, but I might not read your post correctly...

When a Java Fern is "happy", small black spots appear on the lower side of the leaves. If that what you mean by "holes" then this is the first sign that your plant is ready to multiply. Then new roots start to appear and from them a small plants begin to grow. If that is what you're epxeriencing then you can just pluck them out and replant them, or get rid of them. As for the algae, slow growing plants are e to algae, but if you have new plants coming out of the fern then they will help getting rid of the algae as they will use the nutrients in the water and the algae will starve.

If this is your "problem" then a new fern will look good for a while, but will probably go through the same thing.

As for attaching it to the wood, you should tie it to the root for a while. You can use a fishing line and cut it after a while.

As for other plants, check out if Anubias nana is suitable with Clown Loaches. If it is, I think you might enjoy it more. It grows a little faster, it stays green, it can also be attached to the wood, and it might even flower.

I had this same thing happen to 1 leaf on my 14 inch tall java fern. It was doing really good, sprouting off babies left and right, but then one day I just looked in and noticed that 2/3's of the leaf was developing these black lesions, which quickly formed into holes. Before long the leaf started looking like an entry a hole punching contest!
I trimmed it off and the same problem has not reoccured with this plant.
Very odd though.


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