Java fern placement ..

[Catfish Lover]

I currently have a java fern mat rubberband to a flat piece of rock. It's been like that for months and hasn't attached and doesn't look like it will anytime soon. Can I just remove it off the rock and sit
It on my sand? It's growing well producing some babie plantlets.

 

[Oohitsae]

some times older ferns decide they don't care to attach. When I got my first set of ferns they were nearly full grown and refused to attach to anything the entire time I had them I just kept them tied with fishing line till they produced the plantlets and died. The babies all attached pretty quickly though, within a couple weeks.

as long as the rhizome isnt buried under anything you can definitely sit it on the substrate or even let it float around. That wont harm anything at all.

 

[Rokuzachi]

I've had pretty bad luck with java ferns. Couldn't even get them to attach to driftwood of different textures. In the end I lashed them to some small pieces of petrified wood and for whatever reason, they took hold. Another thing I did to keep one from floating around when it was small and I didn't have a spot for it yet, was used one of the ceramic rings from my filter as a weight and wedged it part way in the substrate.