Java fern dying (!!!)

[FishSoup]

Its weird, but ever since i started dosing my 2 tanks with seachem excel, the formerly lush green java fern in both tanks have both started blackening and dying

All the other plants in both tanks (Vallisneria, Aponogeton crispus, Blyxa japonica, Didiplis diandra, Crypt. parvus and wendtii "brown", Anubias nana, Crinum calamistratum, several mosses, hornwort) all seem to be growing well; many of them have shown accelerated growth since using excel.

Anyone knows the cause behind the unfortunate melting of my java ferns?
Is it the Excel, as i suspect? Anyone knows of any way of preserving them?

[Shadow]

How long did you have the fern for? did you bought from LFS? if it is about a month and you bought it from LFS, it is probably converting from sub,erse to emerse

[FishSoup]

Yes, i bought them from LFS.. they've been doing well for about 3-4 months, before beginning to blacken and die.

Java ferns blacken and die off when converting from emersed to submersed form? Is it better for me to remove them, to prevent them from fouling up the water?

[Shadow]

yup, I usually cut them off, the back one. Is the new leaves ok?

[|squee|]

For me they started dying off when I ghey kiang and added some peat moss in my filter. Once I removed the peat, they started recovering.

I guess they don't like the lower pH. Does Seachem Excel lower pH? If so, you have found your answer.

[FishSoup]

I tried cutting off some of the leaves, then realised that even deep in the bunch the leaves are also half black. Sigh.

Java fern can't do well in low pH setups? i had thought they would do well in low pH water, since i thought they came from tannin-rich forest streams or pools..
i had put some ketapang leaves in one of the tanks.

Time to look for a hardy plant more tolerant of low pH...

Any suggestions?

[zyblack]

Nope not pH problem. I have Java ferns dying in coral sand substrate with pH of 8 to 8.5. I don't have much luck with those too. One good thing about them turning black is that you will soon see some baby plants sprouting from the dying leaves. Pluck them out and plant them. These are probably the submersed forms and look pretty nice too.

[FishSoup]

I see.. sprouting directly from the leaves, or from the root/rhizome of the blackened leaves?

The most badly affected of my java ferns had one particular plantlet growing off one of its leaves that suddenly started blackening too, and has now gone to plant heaven


At least now i know its not pH problem. Oh well..

[torque6]

i used to have my java fern and it did have the same symptoms as you. What i did was simpily remove the "algae infected" spots on the leaves, take care not to ripe the whole root out on the driftwood and merely cut them on the stems, they will grow nice green ones in no time.

Hope it helps.