I am a complete newbie when it comes to keeping plants so I read up on the most impossible to kill little plant that will grow in brackish water and decided on a java fern. Unfortunatly the people at my lfs sold me an african water fern (found this out while I was trying to figure out why my fern was dying). So I promptly moved it into a fw tank a few days ago. This thing is literally more brown than green and appears to have some type of mould on it's dying leaves. Is there anything I can do for this little plant or is all hope lost?
Dying African Water Fern
- Thread starter Nyx
- Start date
Can you post a picture? Some of the plants sold as "African water ferns" are not aquatic plants.
The right one is Bolbitis heudelotii. If it is bolbitis, it is a rhizome plant and needs to be attached to driftwood or rock, or have the roots only set into the gravel. If you bury the rhizome it will die.
Here are some examples:
http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Plant, Bolbitis.htm
Bolbitis needs a current and low light to do really well, although some people (like myself) have had it do extremely well in high light and high current.
Mine are huge.
Roan
The right one is Bolbitis heudelotii. If it is bolbitis, it is a rhizome plant and needs to be attached to driftwood or rock, or have the roots only set into the gravel. If you bury the rhizome it will die.
Here are some examples:
http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Plant, Bolbitis.htm
Bolbitis needs a current and low light to do really well, although some people (like myself) have had it do extremely well in high light and high current.
Mine are huge.
Roan
African water fern (bolbitis heudelotti) requires a pretty strong current to grow well. It can benefit from being right beside the filter output flow. If there are not a lot of nutrients in the water (nitrates), you may need to fertilize...