Java Fern

Leptochilus pteropus

The plant most often recommended to a first-time aquarium: it grows tied to wood or stone, needs no special light and no carbon dioxide. Almost nothing kills it, which is why it has been in tanks for a hundred years.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 10 – 45 cm (3.9 – 18 in)
Temperature: 4 – 30 °C (39 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: rhizome
Growth rate: slow
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: on stone and wood +4 on stone and wood, background, midground, nano tank, foreground
Propagation: plantlets on leaves +4 plantlets on leaves, plantlets on roots, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Long, leathery leaves of a dark green, from 10 to 45 cm depending on the form: some are narrow like straps, others wide with wavy edges. The dark dots and lines that appear on the underside of older leaves are spores, not a disease — the plant is simply getting ready to make new plants.

Keeping

Undemanding to the point of stubbornness: it puts up with soft and hard water alike, dim light and no fertiliser. It grows slowly, and that is its only weak spot — in bright light algae have time to settle on the old leaves, so a shaded corner suits it better than the brightest one.

Placement

Tie it to a piece of wood or a stone with fishing line or a thread until it grips on its own; after a few months the roots hold it by themselves. Do not bury the thick horizontal stem the leaves grow from — under the substrate it rots and the plant is lost. That single rule is the whole secret of this fern.

Propagation

It does the work itself: small plantlets grow right on the older leaves and on the roots, and once they have two or three leaves of their own they can be broken off and tied somewhere else. A piece of the horizontal stem with a leaf and a root will also grow into a new plant.

Water conditions match

The water suits 861 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Butterflyfish Julii Corydoras Featherfin Synodontis Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Microsorum pteropus, Microsorum pteropus 'Crisped Leaves', Microsorum pteropus 'Narrow', Microsorum pteropus 'Needle Leaf', Microsorum pteropus 'Orange Narrow', Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine', Microsorum pteropus 'Red', Microsorum pteropus 'Short Narrow Leaf', Microsorum pteropus 'Taiwan', Microsorum pteropus 'Thors Hammer', Microsorum pteropus 'Trident', Microsorum pteropus 'Tropica', Microsorum pteropus 'Undulata', Microsorum pteropus 'Windeløv', Microsorum pteropus nano wood, Microsorum pteropus 'Windeløv', Microsorum pteropus True Needle Leaf, Microsorum pteropus Petit, Microsorum pteropus Taiwan Narrow, Microsorum pteropus Windelov…

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Polypodium pteropus Blume, Microsorum pteropus (Blume) Ching, Colysis pteropus (Blume) Bosman, Leptochilus pteropus (Blume) Fraser-Jenk., im Handel bisher nicht erhaltlich, Microsorium pteropus, Pleopeltis pteropus-minor
Family: Polypodiaceae
Conservation status: LC

Java Fern

Tank conditions

Care and keeping