# Heart fern turning brown.



## JayC (Nov 13, 2013)

Hi, i recently added heart fern in my vivarium is has been in there little more than a week.

I got this in 4" pot and i removed all soil it has had, cleaned really well and then i planted it on the ground level of vivarium(but it gets quite good amount of light since nothing is shading that area. Tank info: 18x18x24 zoomed. Running more than 7month now.)
I mist as usual(twice a day, 2" ventilation on top). Every plants (and frogs) in the tank doing fine except this one.

It gets really brown. It started as a brown dots,or spots, and they're getting bigger and bigger.

Is there anything wrong im doing with this? Again.. Other plants are just fine. Only heart fern has a problem in the tank.


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

It has happened to me too. I think for this plant soil should not be too wet, there must be a good light and even a little air movement in the viv. Unfortunately I lost my Hemionitis last summer.


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

It very well could be going through transplant shock...when I get new plants and do the "treatment"--I try to pot it up in the same substrate that it will eventually live...and put it into a "growout" tank...sort of a transitional stage before adding to a real viv situation...does make the transplanting easier on the plant.


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## toadlicker00 (Feb 14, 2013)

These plants are hard to care for. I have killed more than one in the past. They dont like to dry out and once they start to go downhill its hard to get them to turn around.


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## oddlot (Jun 28, 2010)

I find this to be a fairly easy plant to care for.I think air circulation is important.Do you have a fan in the enclosure?Often ferns will have a die off if they were not grown in viv conditions and will regrow to the conditions of the tank.Air movement is key though.Even if the other plants are doing well,it doesn't mean they like the same conditions as the fern.I keep mine on the wet side.When the fern is happy and hardened to the viv conditions,you'll get new fern plantlets growing right off the top of the mother plant leaves (with this species anyway) You can see new plants with roots growing on the leaf in these pics.


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

Lou...I liked that you pointed out that they will adapt and regrow...and they definitely do not like to be dry at all....


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## JayC (Nov 13, 2013)

oddlot said:


> I find this to be a fairly easy plant to care for.I think air circulation is important.Do you have a fan in the enclosure?Often ferns will have a die off if they were not grown in viv conditions and will regrow to the conditions of the tank.Air movement is key though.Even if the other plants are doing well,it doesn't mean they like the same conditions as the fern.I keep mine on the wet side.When the fern is happy and hardened to the viv conditions,you'll get new fern plantlets growing right off the top of the mother plant leaves (with this species anyway) You can see new plants with roots growing on the leaf in these pics.



That's so ...green!! oddlot!! 
I dont have any fans in my viv.. Prolly that's why. 
When i planted this tank, i had 3 different ferns. Korean rock fern, unknown fern, and lemon fern. I pulled out korean rock fern and unknown fern after a month or so because they were dying.

So..lemon fern is the only survivor.. (Wish heart fern comes back green, and produce baby leaves like yours). I do have a ventilation so im worried if fans dry out my tank so quickly.


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## oddlot (Jun 28, 2010)

How much ventilation do you have?You can always lay a piece of glass over it if you need to.The thing about having the fan in viv and not have too much ventilation,it will keep the viv humid and not dry it out.Another trick I do is,I have a power strip with a multiple timer dial on it and have it set up that it goes on and off multiple times a day. I do this to try and emulate how the breeze blows in nature.


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## JayC (Nov 13, 2013)

Ventilation is about 2"x16". I'll definitely try fan stuff when i do another tank or re-do the one i have now.i have mist-king second timer and mistking system that i dont use for now..(too much for just one tank, i think.) so i might use that timer for fans later! Then i wish i could keep ferns alive.. thanks anyways, i never knew ferns need more air circulations.


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

be careful...too much humidity or drenched soil will also kill that "fern" as well as lots of other plants. People sort of assume that "ferns" need certain things...but there are a whole lotta conditions for certain ferns....remember Google is your friend.....


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