Why Is My Java Fern Dying?

[FoundMoney]

I have three fairly large clumps of Java fern in my tank and to varying degrees all of them have leaves that are turning greyish brown and slowly disintegrating. Some of them actually have green tips but I don't know if they will make a comeback.

In the short term, should I just trim these dead and dying leaves off or let it go and see what happens?

In the longer term, I'd like to figure out what may have caused this. I recently had a moderate BGA problem and I seem to have gotten rid of it by adding some nitrogen to the water, cutting back on the light, feverishly cleaning, and increasing my water changes. It seems like where the BGA was growing on my fern, that's where the leaves have died. Could the BGA have killed the plants and now that it's gone I'm just seeing the dead leaves?

I'm also using Excel in my tank and despite warnings that it melts valisnaria, they seem to be thriving now. Could Excel be harmful to Java fern, as well?

 

[KraKen]

It was probobly the BGA that hurt your fern, it would have cut off light from the parts of the leaves that it was covering and therefor killed the cells it was covering. Now that the cyanobacteria is gone the plant should grow back.

I don't really know anything about Excel so I can't help you there.

 

[SuperColey1]

Whenever I buy new Java Ferns I get this problem and I just cut each leaf off as I see it happening.

I also cut off any leaves that get plantlets on them.

Eventually the plant only has leaves that have grown in my water parameters and it seems to stay healthy.

I assume (maybe incorrectly) it is because of the change in water params from the nursery/wild and your own tank.

Andy

 

[FoundMoney]

I assume (maybe incorrectly) it is because of the change in water params from the nursery/wild and your own tank.

Andy

I've had these plants for over 2 yearsso I would think they would already be used to the tank. Still, perhaps by changing my maintanence schedule I've changed the water parameters.

 

[Chrenobeno]

Are they buried in substrate or on a rock/wood surface?

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

As above, I'd cut the dead leaves off...but keep the tips with the baby ferns growing. Just let them float in the tank. They'll take their time to grow, but hey...free Java Fern!
Cutting the dead leaves away saves the plant from wasting resources in trying to repair them and can spend those resources in creating new growth.

 

[Essjay]

14 year old thread

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

14 year old thread

Doh!
(Again).

It would be helpful if the Mod team stopped comments on older threads.

 

[Essjay]

But that would mean going back through goodness knows how many pages and locking every single thread

What you need is for the admins to change the software so that no posts can be made to any thread with a last post older than x months. (Another forum I use flags up - this thread has not been posted in for at least 120 days. Unless you're sure you want to post, please start a new thread.)

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

But that would mean going back through goodness knows how many pages and locking every single thread

What you need is for the admins to change the software so that no posts can be made to any thread with a last post older than x months. (Another forum I use flags up - this thread has not been posted in for at least 120 days. Unless you're sure you want to post, please start a new thread.)

I like that solution.

 

[Spyro]

But that would mean going back through goodness knows how many pages and locking every single thread

What you need is for the admins to change the software so that no posts can be made to any thread with a last post older than x months. (Another forum I use flags up - this thread has not been posted in for at least 120 days. Unless you're sure you want to post, please start a new thread.)

The easiest thing to deal with this problem is to not say anything Essjay!
I doubt anyone would notice and people would just continue on with 20 year old discussions...


Also a suggestion: You should award some sort of research badge to Chrenobeno. It's some serious research depth to get to 2007 lol
And that person that responded to one of the first posts on forum haha

 

[Myraan]

Sometimes if I'm unsure about the discussion in a post on here I google to look for articles or even youtubes. More often than not the top result is the post on this site that made me confused in the first place.

 

[Slaphppy7]

But that would mean going back through goodness knows how many pages and locking every single thread

What you need is for the admins to change the software so that no posts can be made to any thread with a last post older than x months. (Another forum I use flags up - this thread has not been posted in for at least 120 days. Unless you're sure you want to post, please start a new thread.)

Or, we could just lock them as they come up....I wonder if the OP's java fern is still alive?

 

[Essjay]

Or even if they still have a tank

 

[Stan510]

Potassium. Java ferns can go green on it. Same for Trident and other varieties of Java fern. With low potassium you might get even Java fern leaves turning white.
So 2007 or not..the answer is still the same!