African Fern

[catwoman]

I have had an African Fern in my tank now for probably a month now or more. It has attached to the rock and I see one tiny new sprout. The original leaves are completely algae ridden. My water parms are great. I have good lighting and CO2, etc. My other plants are growing fine. Is this just a hard to grow plant or REALLY slow? I bought it because I liked the shape of the branches and the nice dark green color. I am ready to pull it out and give up on it.

[Momotaro]

Algae ridden? Black looking?

African water fern does this at times. Try to locate the plant near the outlet of your filter. The plant loves water flow, and its growth and appearance will improve in it.

Mike

[catwoman]

The tips of the leaves are all curled and and there is black algae on it. This could be left over abuse from LFS. The plant is next to the inlet and there is pretty good flow throughout the tank - the branhes of it are swaying. I can wait and see what the new shoots look like.

[ming]

I'd still hold on to this plant, it grows really slow at first until it settles into your new aquarium and then the growth rate keeps getting faster and faster. The original leaves I got with my plant were almost all black as well and seemed like it was about to die, it grew new leaves slowly and a few months laters, the original leaves fell off but by that time, it grew lots of new leaves everywhere. Now my leaves are nice lush green and the plant is sending a rhizome runner in every direction
Its also directly under my filter so it gets some water circulation

[Momotaro]

The tips of the leaves are all curled and and there is black algae on it.

Thats pretty typical Catwoman. That's why I mentioned black looking. The plant is fine. like ming mentioned, the plant will settle in and take off. The new growth will eventually grow over the old, unappealing older growth.

Mike