I bought a tube plant at Petco, labeled Java Fern. I left it floating in the tank, and it seems to be doing well... Then I found a picture of a Java Fern on Live Aquaria and what I have looks completely different. Twilight Storm sent me photos of different kinds of Java Ferns, and I'm sure that the plant I bought is something else. The leaves look sort of like the wisteria I put in the other tank, but the wisteria has a long, bare stem and leaves at the top, while this has leaves all the way down to the roots.
Does anyone know what this is? It has started growing long green strings since I brought it home.
Water Wisteria. That's what all of mine have looked like until they melted (don't mean to hijack, but anyone know how to prevent/recover from wisteria melt?). Those long green things are roots. They tend to grow from every node
Its supposed to be fine either way, but a lot of members like to float it because of how nice it looks (some will plant it after the roots get long). I personally like mine floating, but when it started melting, I took it out and put it in another tank. I've got a few new stems in there that I planted instead of floated.
Yep that's wisteria, one of my favorite looking plants although I can NEVER find any when I'm out shopping!!!! The one time I did I passed on it because I was having issues with algae. *bangs head on the wall*
Yours does look nice and healthy though! I am going to get some and try my hand at it the very next time I see some. :D
Just wondering, sorry if I already asked you this, but what kind of lighting are you using in your tanks?
And you're not Hijacking LittleWatty. I wish we had more condensed threads. I have real issues using search. Either it comes up "be more specific" or I got a lot of threads listed where the topic i'm trying to find is just a word said once in a thread lol.
As to your question LittleWatty Ask Mo, or Kfryman on how to recover from the melt if they don't pop in here. Mo has some threads here on plants and kfryman has beautiful water wisteria. Unless i'm horribly wrong that is lol! They are two I know of offhand that can probably help you.
In my experience, Wisteria doesn't like hot, stagnant water - none has survived in my unfiltered tanks, it's just melted very quickly. In my filtered tanks where there's a little surface flow, it thrives as a floating plant and sets out tons of roots.
It also needs good light -- 6500K colour temp globes or LEDs - and a lot of iron, and will get pale eventually unless there's iron supplements. But it stays green for several months and the bettas love to sleep/play in it.
I like to let the green fallen leaves float and put out roots, so there's baby plants to spread around the tank. :)
The water is warm, and it is stagnant lol. Howie is a delta, and too fluffy to swim if there's any sort of current. Plus, he got sucked into a filter once, and I'm afraid to use one with him (overprotective mom of first fish baby, I know lol). So, I'll let him enjoy the wisteria while it's alive, and if it dies, I'll get him something else to play in. He loves these things, and makes his bubble nests in them :)
However, knowing that they like to float in a current, perhaps I will uproot the ones I planted in the filtered tank.
As for light - I have no clue; I think they are regular fluorescent bulbs. I even bought them separately and don't remember what they were. I think the store was out of the ones that are reccomended for plants, and these were only 5 dollars, so I'll replace them if the plants will be happier.
The moss ball and the anubias seem to be doing great, even with the cheap light bulbs; will they be okay if I change to a different bulb?
My house is known to my family as The Cave, because it has so few windows. Real sunlight in this place is almost non-existent.
The good news there is that real sunlight tends to cause a lot of algae in fish tanks. :D
I shoved a bit of java fern in a container at water change time, meaning to tether it later, accidentally put the container away in the fish cupboard.. for almost two weeks... and found it looking no worse for wear after living two weeks in utter darkness.
These SE Asian low-light plants like that are pretty darned tolerant to lack of light for a time, I'm supposing due to their habitat in nature being in or around boggy black water under a dense forest canopy.. much like the African forest, so I dare say your anubias will be just fine for a while with the globes you have. They do grow pretty well under proper plants lights, however, mine are thriving. Dunno about the moss ball, never had one..
If the wisteria melts (it may not.. I think ph has a hand in melt as well) it's worth while replacing if it only goes toes-up after a few months. If it's weekly, then some floating java fern might be better suited for a betta hammock. I wove some together into a kind of mat, my betta loved gliding over it.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
Similar Threads
Howie's so-called "Java Fern"?
