The Puffer Forum

Brought my f8 puffers home today and slowly dripped them into my brackish tank (petstore = 1.002 My tank = 1.005)

They seem very happy and their colors are great! They have already taken out 4 snails that i had in the tank before they were put in, and they also hunted and killed a crawfish.

Anyway, one of the puffers has started bitting my java fern and then spitting it out. Making all sorts of little bullet holes in it. He "Egor" isn't eating it, just bitting it.

Normal??????

Video of it is on the way.

Thanks

Hunting for snails.

Really? This is a normal thing? (bitting plants)

Theres a crawfish in there and they ripped it to shreds. It was awesome!

Snails are on the plants. F8 bit at the plants in order to get to the snails.

This is pretty much my experience too,

ditto PPP, but see those black spots on the fern? That leaf will eventually detach and those sposts will grow roots. The puffers may think they are snails Sorry I forgot what the spots are actually called.

Spores

yes / no. Similar but "spores" doesn't come to mind. It was under a different name, but now that you mention it; DGabbs are the fern roots firmly in the gravel / substrate? If they are, they shouldn't be. You can weigh them down but don't bury them.

AFAIK java fern propigaes 3 ways:
rhizome
leaflet splitting
and as PP mentioned : Spores.

I might / probably am mistaken (it has been a while since I kept Java fern), but those black spots will show signs of roots shortly. Thus, I thought there was a different name for them other than "spores" (which act in a similar fashion to seeds).

I am not by any means saying PP is incorrect. Just my memory might be incorrect.

LOL, with my memory & the fact that I'm on 2 painkillers & a sleeping pill, I was pretty proud of myself coming up with that!

Sporamgia; a.k.a. spore cases.

The baby plantlets are commonly referred to as "adventitious plants or adventitious plantlets. This is asexual reproduction, roughly comparable to cuttings of stem plants. But cuttings of the Java ferns require sections of the rhizome, not just the fronds.

True sexual reproduction from these ferns is best emerse, with misting. It is slower than growth from the adventitious plantlets.

Adventitious plantlets are also common to some tropical water lilies and their kin the "banana" plants from the leaf axils of mature leaves (floating at the surface) under good light.

HTH

it does help and thank you for the input.

It is much appreciated.

Thanks guys! I just hope they dont ruin the fern looking for snails.

I know this very well.. I spent 15€ for plants, Vallisneria spiralis, Anubias barteri, Bacopa monieri, Echinodorus bleheri and after 2 days was OVER.. they destroyed EVERYTHING, I dont think they were searching snails.. I would like to try Java moss, but.. I am not sure..

Snoopy wrote:I know this very well.. I spent 15€ for plants, Vallisneria spiralis, Anubias barteri, Bacopa monieri, Echinodorus bleheri and after 2 days was OVER.. they destroyed EVERYTHING, I dont think they were searching snails.. I would like to try Java moss, but.. I am not sure..

I am sort of wondering what will happen to the €55 worth of anubias when my F8 comes . My experience so far has been that the plants are left alone, but with the so many different kinds of personalities .

For me it's just another excuse to go out and buy new decorations .