Peacock Fern

Does anyone have any experience with this plant and how i can keep it from dying in my tank....

It just looks so nice in the hexagon tank... i know its technically not an aquatic plant, but i just bought it from petco, stupidly, without knowing... any advice?

Need a closer, cleaer pic of the plant.

Heres hoping it's aquatic, but simply from the name "peacock fern", the fact that it was bought at Petco, and the general outline of the plant (I have two species in mind), I dont think it is.

What light does the tank have over it btw?

Oh, and as a sidenote, get yourself a better filter - those Pennplax ones are useless for fish aquarius (unless you are setting one up in an emergency). The carbon in them and the zeolite get used up very fast, after wich you are left with a very, very low-efficency poorly designed filter that slowly gets worse over time (as the carbon starts to crumble and the rubbish sponge it it gets full of crap). The replacement cartriges for them work as soon as you put them in, then you get a delayed ammonia spike as your tank is left uncycled. Then the process sarts again.

A simple air-powered sponge filter would be cheaper and more effective. Though you would still need to cycle it, or at least do 50-100% daily water changes for a few weeks to stop ammonia rising during the cycling.

Otherwise, you fish is going to be repeatedly exposed to varying levels of ammonia over it's lifetime. Mayt not kill it immediatly (bettas can be #41#### hardy) but it's far from healthy and will make the fish far more suseptible to disease.

That's an incandescent light for heat purposes only, my tank is next to the best spectrum possible, sunlight all day as well as a few lights to keep tropical plants alive, because my room is temporarily a greenhouse. I'm not to worried about the lighting... i had a anubias in the tank for a few months before i switched to the peacock fern.
I'm not to worried about my filtration either... i am not using carbon or zeolite, it's just a plain sponge filter, and its not for the betta, hes real hardy, it's for my shrimp, otherwise there would be no filtration. i had virtually no ammonia in my tank right before i put the sponge filter in, and that was with stagnant water and a handful of snails, the sponge filter is basically just for the aeration...
i was hoping for some advice with either plant nutrients, or if maybe i should lower the water level so the plant can grow partially out of the water? Do bog plants require any type of GH or KH or PH that is different from the average aquatic plant? I have no problem keeping java fern, anubias, and banana plants, should i do anything different for this little #29###?

Sorry about the pic i dont have my digital camera, all i have is my cell phone
this pic is closer, but not much clearer...

GreenEyedTerror said:

I'm not to worried about my filtration.........it's just a plain sponge filter, and its not for the betta, hes real hardy, it's for my shrimp, otherwise there would be no filtration.

Click to expand...

Ouch.
Every fish needs a filter whether you believe it or not. Just because Betta's have a labyrinth organ doesn't mean they don't deserve/don't require good water quality.
You may well say "he's survived in the past without a filter", however that by no means, means that the Betta has been thriving or enjoying it's life.

Im not ignorant about water quality, I do water tests, and use water from an established filtered tank, i just do not want to stress my betta out by creating a current in his tiny little tank i have no ammonia or nitrites as stated before, i see no other reason for a filter than to grow bacteria on it to decompose waste and if i already have enough bacteria growing on my substrate to accomplish this i see no reason for a filter, my betta is active, has healthy coloring and has a healthy appetite, i dont settle for surviving i try keep my fish healthy and happy

Good thing the filters just a sponge one, we cant get those Pennplax ones in sponge-only format here in the UK. Though I would disagree with not using a filter for a betta, it's immaterial since you do. Using water from an established tank makes no difference though.

I'd love to have a greenhouse for a room, lucky you.

Anyway, the plants a non-aquatic Selanginella wildenowii and should be removed before it starts to rot .

I'd recommend Java fern or Anubias spp. instead .

oh well. i'll just put the anubias that i had in there back, i guess the fern will look nice with my tarantula

on second thought... think my java fern that's attached to a rock would work well, and it has more leaves for the shrimp to explore

A peacock fern. I have these in my tank and they live longer than some of the 'true' aquatic plants I have. The fish tend to leave them alone, and they root really well. It's the same with a lot of the non aquatic plants I have, they certainly last four months and those peacock ferns I've had over six months. I do have a lot of light on the tank. Not sure if that would help.