Java Fern: Not As Easy As Reputed To Be

I'd appreciate any tips you have on keeping java fern from turning brown and dying, because this is probably my fourth time trying java fern in two aquariums with parameters well within the commonly stated requirements for this plant. Again, it's starting to turn brown. I've researched it online and found lots of posts about java fern experiences similar to mine, but no concrete answers.

I keep the java fern above the gravel, usually tied to Malaysian driftwood.

I've tried not dosing, and another time tried a conservative dose of API Leaf Zone. This time, I just started trying Easy Green Nano at the recommended dosage for low-light aquariums. Easy Green seems to be a more complete fertilizer, so I'm guessing I can rule out nutrient deficiency if it doesn't help.

Within a couple of weeks of putting the plant in the aquarium, I'll notice this kind of browning:

Java Fern Browning 2

• Vince3
• Aug 20, 2018

Another example of the browning that starts happening within a couple of weeks of putting java...

Here are the parameters for both aquariums:

5.5 gallons
standard gravel substrate
77°
Aqueon daylight T8 bulb (15 inches, 14W, full-spectrum) - 6-8 hours
ph 7.4
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 5
KH 5° dKH
GH 160 ppm

Other inhabitants:
1 male betta, fed three pellets per day
3 anubias
1 crypt petchii
(I usually keep it moderately planted with anubias; the crypt is new)

Thanks!

 

I’m guessing there is not enough nutrients. I have mine planted in a soil substrate with a ton of guppies and it grows well

 

Try upping your lighting to 9-10 hours. Also dose your water column with fertilizers. Your java fern probably isn't getting any nutrients and is dying as a result. Don't dose conservatively, you can probably dose your tank twice a week. Just be sure to do a 30-40% water change at the end of every week.

I keep some java fern, but I don't dig it too much. It's quite a slow grower and tanks a long time to grow dense and bushy.

 

Thanks for the replies.

Koiman, I wanted to be conservative with the lighting and dosing because of algae issues I had in my last two aquariums. Maybe the answer to that issue isn't less light and fertilizer (at least for the java fern's sake), but expanding into faster-growing, low-tech plants.

That leads me to MD_Plants' reply. I've read that plain gravel is fine for my anubias and java fern, but I wonder if nutrients in the soil wouldn't help at all.

Is my aquarium so low-tech and conservative that I don't have enough options?

 

or to my gravel

It's actually completely inert. Despite what the marketing might say, most of the "nutrients" are simply part of the chemical structure of the rocks and aren't biologically available for plants. It's a bit like claiming you can breathe sand since silicon dioxide has oxygen as part of its chemical structure.

Flourite, insofar as I understand, is similar to Eco-Complete: it's inert.

But it's important to note that plants don't express a preference for nutrient uptake via the water column or via the substrate: they'll seek out nutrients wherever they are. This is why formal methods of fert dosing (e.g. Estimate Index, PPS-Pro) simply dose the ferts into the water column without necessarily worrying about the substrate.

Substrates, over time, do accumulate mulm (decomposed organic detritus like fish food, solid fish waste, plant matter, etc.) This is quite beneficial as it helps draw nutrients from the water column and binds it closer to the root system.

That being said, I agree with the others with exception for the lighting: maintain your light, up your ferts to twice a week.

 

It's actually completely inert. Despite what the marketing might say, most of the "nutrients" are simply part of the chemical structure of the rocks and aren't biologically available for plants. It's a bit like claiming you can breathe sand since silicon dioxide has oxygen as part of its chemical structure.

Flourite, insofar as I understand, is similar to Eco-Complete: it's inert.

But it's important to note that plants don't express a preference for nutrient uptake via the water column or via the substrate: they'll seek out nutrients wherever they are. This is why formal methods of fert dosing (e.g. Estimate Index, PPS-Pro) simply dose the ferts into the water column without necessarily worrying about the substrate.

Substrates, over time, do accumulate mulm (decomposed organic detritus like fish food, solid fish waste, plant matter, etc.) This is quite beneficial as it helps draw nutrients from the water column and binds it closer to the root system.

That being said, I agree with the others with exception for the lighting: maintain your light, up your ferts to twice a week.

Thanks for the info Fluorite and Eco-Complete, and for plants' nutrient uptake.

I found on Aquatic Plant Central:

"Java fern routinely develops black leaves with decay. It is a natural part of this plant's life cycle. Usually the black leaves will be covered with baby java ferns. The plant kills the leaf so the babies can float away and establish new colonies of java fern."

In another post in that thread (#9), the same poster says, "Sometimes they produce black leaves, it isn't a good plant to watch to spot deficiency symptoms in general."

Does that line up with your experience with java fern?

 

It's a little hard to see from the picture, but it looks like there's a baby plant on the tip of the leaf that the red arrow is pointing to. When I got my java fern all the big leaves shortly "melted" (turned brown and started rotting away) while dropping baby plants from the tips, and new leaves grew from the base.

 

I haven't kept Java fern, so I can't comment particularly on whether the blackening effect seen in the photos is part of its propagation method.

As you've mentioned you've experienced this three times in the past with Java fern, my first suspicion leads to me to think that it's a nutrient deficiency. Easy Green Nano is rather light on nitrogen and phosphorus and it could well be a deficiency in either of these. But lavishing ferts only very rarely has any negative effects and as ferts are (generally) a low, ongoing cost, upping their dose for a few weeks would be my first response to see what effect it has.

 

Within a couple of weeks of putting the plant in the aquarium, I'll notice this kind of browning

Where did you get your java fern? Is it a Top Fin (in one of those tubes) tissue culture? The leaves it has when you buy it tissue cuture grown will all fall off as it adjusts to submerged growth. Even changes between tanks can cause old leaves to die, if a plant was grown with CO2 and high light the leaves will be grown that suit that environment. Sudden change to a low CO2 and low light will require the plant have leaves adapted to that environment.

Old leaves leaves also die to release the plantlets that are growing on it. That's how it propagates and spreads. Just as PubliusVA said.

I have no trouble with java fern of all varieties in ambient light and no tank light at all. No fertilizers, just fish. But every leaf that came from the store turned brown as new ones replaced them, or plantlets started growing on the tips and the leaf died when they were ready to be released.

Now that I think of it, the only 'new' plants I've gotten that didn't turn brown and fall off, were plants that I got from other ppl growing it in similar conditions ie low tech medium low light to low tech medium low light. I've had existing java fern leaves turn brown from too much light, but never to little light (as long as it got some ambient light and was a stable condition not sudden change).

As long as the rhizome is healthy you should see new leaves coming in.

 

Where did you get your java fern? Is it a Top Fin (in one of those tubes) tissue culture? The leaves it has when you buy it tissue cuture grown will all fall off as it adjusts to submerged growth. Even changes between tanks can cause old leaves to die, if a plant was grown with CO2 and high light the leaves will be grown that suit that environment. Sudden change to a low CO2 and low light will require the plant have leaves adapted to that environment.

One of them was in a tube, and the other came from a fish store's plant tank. The tubed plant was actually several rhizome clipping with 2-4 leaves, and the rhizomes were tied together so it looked like a whole plant. I untied them and submerged each separately. The leaf pictured above is from one of the clippings, and the whole plant from the fish store has a similar brown spot.

If I recall, the java fern I had in the past were from tubes. With 2-4 leaves, 1-2 of which are small, I assume some of these tubed plants' rhizome clippings are at risk of dying completely during this adjustment process. My java fern from the fish store has eight leaves, so I'll keep a closer eye on that one.