My mom has a Java Fern in her 29 gallon tank. It's not a planted tank by
any means, it's just a little fish only tank with this plant and some hair
grass stuff from Petsmart.. Over the past 2 weeks, the Java Fern has turned
almost 3/4 black. It's not the normal look when a spot on the leave turns
dark and produces a baby plant...I mean most of the leaves and the steam is
turning black. I assume it's dying, but wanted to check here first.

here is a pic of the fern.....it's in the middle of the tank

http://idoneous.net/images/misc/jf_black.jpg


"SlimFlem" wrote in message
.net...
My mom has a Java Fern in her 29 gallon tank. It's not a planted tank by
any means, it's just a little fish only tank with this plant and some hair
grass stuff from Petsmart.. Over the past 2 weeks, the Java Fern has
turned
almost 3/4 black. It's not the normal look when a spot on the leave turns
dark and produces a baby plant...I mean most of the leaves and the steam
is
turning black. I assume it's dying, but wanted to check here first.

SlimFlem wrote:
My mom has a Java Fern in her 29 gallon tank. It's not a planted
tank by any means, it's just a little fish only tank with this plant
and some hair grass stuff from Petsmart.. Over the past 2 weeks, the
Java Fern has turned almost 3/4 black. It's not the normal look when
a spot on the leave turns dark and produces a baby plant...I mean
most of the leaves and the steam is turning black. I assume it's
dying, but wanted to check here first.


From the photo it looks as if the fern has been planted directly into
the gravel, I have always been told you must plant either in a rock
crevice or onto drift wood but never bury the rhizome as it will cause
the plant to rot. It seems to work for me but I have never tried to
plant it like a conventional plant so I'm not sure if the information i
received was correct or not.

The plant looks dead to me :-(

IME the rhizome should be above the substrate. Tie it to a piece of
driftwood or a rock with cotton thread. The thread will eventually rot away
and the rhizome will have attached itself.

"SlimFlem" wrote in message
.net...

here is a pic of the fern.....it's in the middle of the tank

http://idoneous.net/images/misc/jf_black.jpg


"SlimFlem" wrote in message
.net...
My mom has a Java Fern in her 29 gallon tank. It's not a planted tank
by
any means, it's just a little fish only tank with this plant and some
hair
grass stuff from Petsmart.. Over the past 2 weeks, the Java Fern has
turned
almost 3/4 black. It's not the normal look when a spot on the leave
turns
dark and produces a baby plant...I mean most of the leaves and the steam
is
turning black. I assume it's dying, but wanted to check here first.

As others have said, the rhizome should be above the gravel. Java fern is best
tied to rocks or driftwood.

Don't give up hope unless the rhizome has rotted. The leaves of java fern may
turn black and die for various reasons, but as long as the rhizome is good, it
will grow back.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Don't give up hope unless the rhizome has rotted. The leaves of java fern may
turn black and die for various reasons, but as long as the rhizome is good, it
will grow back.

Also, You CAN plant it in gravel, you just have to keep the rizome
mostly at the surface. Like anubias. But I think burying it is the only
way to kill these guys.


--
Sherry Michael Weller
SAS Distributed Desktop Support
www.psych.upenn.edu/~sherrym