You can tie java ferns to almost anything with nylon sewing thread. If you
like coconuts get a few scrape out the meat and let the shell soak in a
bucket of water. After a week or so... get your excess java ferns and tie
them by wrapping the thread onto the coconut shell. Put the shell into a
tank and watch it grow.

Da'Fishboy


"R.C. Keely" wrote in message
.. .
RifRaf wrote:

Good to know that the "brown hairy rootlets" are normal too...that was
gonna be another question.

Javas are excellent plants for sucking excess nutrients out of the water
column because of their habit of growing on things rather than in the
gravel, with all those hairy rootlets absorbing waste. The rootlets will
stick to rocks and wood when they find it. I guess I like the effect when
the babies start having babies, and you get multiple levels of plantlets
that form a weird little jungle... fish like it. But my tank probably
wouldn't win any prizes for organized aquascaping ;-)

I have 1 dwarf gourami in there and he doesn't seem to be messing with
the java fern at all. So, I'll prolly spend a couple minutes one day
and remove all the leaflets....might atually use 1 or 2 of them....not
sure what to do with the rest.

I had some spare suction cups (with the rubber ring, to hold a
thermometer)
so I started tying plantlets to the rubber rings and sticking them to the
back wall of the tank. Made sort of a nice backdrop when I had a half
dozen
of them; they seemed to like it and got big quite fast with the rootlets
just trailing in the current. Also you can just jam them into crevices in
wood or rocks... but yeah, I suppose there is such a thing as java fern
overkill ;-) I always wanted to try growing them emersed in a very humid
terrarium, I've read they grow very well like that, but I've run out of
places to put tanks...

Rebecca
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