Hi
Is thereanything unique to this plant compared to java fern, besides the obvious narrow leaves?
Thank you
-Dennis-
I love this plant because of its versitility. It is easy to grow and due to its size can be placed anywhere in the aquarium without being too dominant. I have attached some to the underside of a bit of driftwood in my aquarium, it adds a different dimension, not many plants can do this.
how do you go about attaching it to driftwood? do you tie the root with thread? and the brown roots( i think rhyzomes) ? how can I achieve that crown look that i've seen in aquascapes, especially Amano's?
Dennis,
You may use fine fish line (no cotton string, it will rot over time) to tie the rhyzome onto wood, plastic mesh, etc. For leafs that already have buds on them, you can have new plantlets just by cutting them off from the rhyzome and attach them on wood. Leave the fish line there, they will eventually be covered by the new leafs.
To grow them bushy, it takes a long time. First, the plant needs to adapt to the tank water, about 1~3 months. After that, they will grow pretty fast. Then, cut the old leafs (darker green and bigger ones) away will stimulate new growth. Rhyzome will also begin to lengthen/spread.
One thing that I fail in keeping this plant is that the old leafs often turn dark green and then spot algae thrives there. Perhaps my lighting is too strong for it. Any comments on this?
hey freddy
when you mean cut the leaf do you mean the entire leaf or like half way or also can you pluck it out, i've only had regular java fern and the algae thing hasn't happend.
FC, its some nutrient issue here with your narrow leaf java fern. Something ran out for sure...why not do a large water change..double check your CO2 level and add back all the nutrients. Most NO3 kits we use are very bad...don't trust it. Thats about all I can say.
Regards
Peter Gwee :wink:
Dennis,Originally Posted by strung_0ut
To achieve the crown look, you have to tie the rhizomes (or stems, I'm not sure what are they called) to the undersides of driftwoods. Grown in such a way, the rhizomes will be invisible but the leaves will spread out in all directions to form a bushy look.
You can simply tie the rhizomes using fishing line or with any sort of strings. Over time, the leaves will cover the strings/threads and they will become invisible. I usually use fishing lines and when the plant is firmly attached to the driftwood, I will cut off all the lines. Before tieing the rhizomes to driftwood, cut off as many brown roots as you can because this helps to stimulate new growth.
The Narrow Leaf Java Ferns can propagate themselves from leaves but if you want to be sure, it's better to grow them from the rhizomes. Under certain circumstances which I'm not sure about, leaves sometimes won't throw out plantlets.
As Freddy pointed out, spot algae quite often appear on old leaves. The Ferns are slow-growers like Annubias so if they are exposed to too much light, there's bound to be spot-algae.
Loh K L
hi Loh,
what do you mean by tieing it to the undersides of driftwood?
-Dennis-
Dennis,
What KL means is place the rhizome under the wood and secure it with fish line. In this way, the leafs grown out from under the wood and heed towards the side and then top of the wood. It looks much better then tieing it on top of the wood as you do not get to see the rhizome and the leafs's stem which are not interesting at all.
Do you think this can be apply to branches.
Kennedy,
What do mean by branches? What do you want to do with them?
I mean whether you could tie the ferns under branches as well.
Kennedy,
If you are refering to wood branches, I think so. Afterall, if the plant is planned to grow from nutrients suspending in the water, it does not matters where you tie it to (can be mesh, rocks, etc), so long it is exposed to sufficient light.
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