good experiences with international order

[smooth_cannibal]

i have been trolling ebay for some plants and i bought two plants. Java fern and anubias barteri var "nana narrow leaf" from two different international sellers.

the anubias was a gamble at 4.70 and so was the java fern at 3.75 for a bunch of about 10 leaves.


the anubias was from Coin's Corner, Atomizer Diffuser items in Aquarium HK store on eBay!. what was pleasing to me was the fact that on the customs form it said live aquarium plant and the species of plant. the plant arrived alive. three leaves needed to go but the rhyzome is about 3.5 inches i'd say. i received it from china in 8 days

the java fern was purchased was from Aquarium, java Moss items in AquaticMagic store on eBay! . it came from malaysia in 10 days. arrived alive. i had to get rid of a few leaves but it was good shape. best part was i got twice the amount the ad stated. i received 20 leaves and it was in 7 sections. way cool.

i don't normally like buying internationally but both came with free shipping and it wasn't too much to lose.

 

[Billbug68]

Glad you had a good experience. FYI, the Java Fern should not be planted in the substrate. You need to tie it to a rock or driftwood. Same goes for the Anubias.

 

[Fishfur]

Yes, indeed. If the rhizome is planted it will soon rot away. Only the roots that sprout from the rhizome can be planted, but most do attach them to wood, or coarse rocks and let the roots either stick to the mount, or grown down into the substrate. Anubias will do that, it can get very long roots on it.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

the ferns are attached to rocks. i didn't realize java ferns were just like the anubias (never had either) having a rhizome so i'll knock off the gravel. there is hardly any on top of them just enough to hide the bad tying job i did with fly tippet. i haven't figured out exactly where i want to put the anubias yet. i literally just got them in the past few days. i would just let them all float around but that tank has an internal power filter and everything ends up stuck to the intake

 

[Fishfur]

The problem arises mostly when the rhizome is completely buried. I won't buy potted ferns any more, as every one I've tried has had either no rhizome left at all, or just a few shreds that are already rotting away. If they are floating, they are fine, and if tied to a mount they are fine. Unlike anubias, they have very fine roots, like black threads and while they can produce a big mass of roots it takes them much longer to do that than Anubias take to produce big roots.