Java Moss and other.

[Rxblade123]

How do you reproduce more of them? Pull some strands off and put it in a different place? Because I have done that, but thats just like 2 or 3 strands. Wouldn't these just grow longer and thats it? I want more strands of them. Oh and about a month ago, I cut my Rangeri Sword in half so I could get more of them, but now they stopped growing. Are they dead?

 

[BrianNY]

Time will take care of the Java fern reproduction. I started with 3 a few months ago and now my tank is covered with them. They start off tiny, dropping off from the main ferns but will colonize the whole tank

 

[LAGlocker]

Nice looking tank there Brian. I have never tried the java ferns, but now seeing that I might have to buy a few to put in one or two of my tanks.

 

[TankGirl]

Agree with BrianNY. The fern produces babies upon its mature leaves, and once they have leaves and a few brown roots, you can either gently pick them off and attach them somewhere else, or allow them to fall off on their own, float around for a while and find a place to land.

The moss you can just gently separate it.

You may have damaged your sword when you separated it. If the rhizome is damaged it could compromise the plant. It also could be moved somewhere with poor nutrients in the substrate, or a part of the tank with less light. Could be a number of things. It may simply be using energy to make roots, which you can't see, and one day the leaves will start growing again.

 

[brotherd]

Ditto!

 

[vega]

Java Moss take quit long to grow compare to most aqua plant.

 

[Rxblade123]

I see..... Well, I have no problems with the Java moss growing. Can the Rangeri Sword plant reproduce naturally? I'm going to bury a few dead leaves and some fish food around those plants see, if they can absorb the nutrients. I have one very hardy male Pink Convict in there. That's it. It's my little killer lol, It's killed about 3 blue gourami's and 2 other female convicts. I guess it didn't like them lol. Btw I want to get some Java Fern, but the ones at my LFS have lots of black spots on them. I haven't see any ones without them. Is there something wrong with them? I'm gona see if I can get my mom to take me to other LFS.

 

[TankGirl]

A root tab type fertilizer would do so much better than burying dead leaves and fish food.

Most swords need to be divided, as they do not send out runners, or baby plants, per se.

Mature java fern does have leaves with some brown or black on them, but for the most part, java fern is easy to grow and will thrive in most tanks. It is much easier to grow than most swords, which are heavy root feeders and require more light than java fern.

I am going to move this over to the planted tank forum, where you will get more attention to the topic.

 

[Rxblade123]

No wonder I couldn't find this post lol. Can I use potting soil for fertilizer? I don't have any soils and I don't know where I could find soil specificed for aquariums.

 

[LAGlocker]

Not sure about pottins soil per se, but I knwo you can get eco complete, or laterite substrate, there may even be a few others that can be used in that way.

 

[Mr Burns]

i wouldn't trust using potting soil..there could be chemical fertilizers or pesticides in there that aren't worth taking a chance on. i think that would be downright messy also. imo, eco complete is the best planted tank substrate you can get and that might be able to mix in with your current substrate. while i don't agree with how caribsea has done the whole weight/price thing over the past few years, the quality and benefits of eco-complete are unquestionable. it's black which looks -infinity times- better than flourite, and there's NO rinsing! i'm going with straight EC in my tank once it's completed...after i found out about EC, the others weren't even in contention. the only problem was cost, but i have a great hook up on that now, so the decision is locked in!