What is this

[Artemas]

I have 8 week old planted 40 gallon breeder pretty heavily planted with aquasoil, 20 brilliant rasboras and 2 clown plecos and 6 nerite snails. Went thru a diatom phase a few weeks ago and tank is doing pretty good. My question is what is the hairy brown things attaching themselves to the ends of a few plants? They are not everywhere just a few locations but hard to remove. 

Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 5, ph 6.6, gh 6, kh 3, temp 78. 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Artemas
Added photo

[Expectorating_Aubergine]

Sounds like black beard algae.

[Jimmy Cleveland]

Looks like a baby plant I just cut one of my Java ferns leafs of to make it reproduce. If it was algae I would think it would be in more spots then that one place 

[Jimmy Cleveland]

You don't have the rhizome down is the substrate if so it will kill the planet and that's why it's reproducing. It proper gates when in stress mode or if it's a mother planet 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Jimmy Cleveland

[Ninjoma]

Could be roots, could be staghorn algae, could be black beard algae or it could be something else. Pictures would help. 

[nabokovfan87]

Can you post a photo?

[Artemas]

Added photo

[Ninjoma]

On 4/11/2023 at 10:12 PM, Artemas said:

Added photo

I think they are roots from baby Java ferns. 

[Artemas]

Yes it is only on my Java ferns. So I need to plant them deeper in soul? 

[Artemas]

I see they are roots, rhizome plants are not planted in substrate. I will attach to wood. Can they also be attached to inert substances with super glue gel   ( i have large  plastic decorative cave ) ?

[JettsPapa]

On 4/12/2023 at 1:23 AM, Artemas said:

I see they are roots, rhizome plants are not planted in substrate. I will attach to wood. Can they also be attached to inert substances with super glue gel   ( i have large  plastic decorative cave ) ?

I don't have java ferns, but I have a number of anubias attached to wood or rocks with super glue gel, so I'm sure it would be fine.

[Odd Duck]

Those are roots from new baby ferns developing on the leaf.  Let them grow a bit until the roots are at least an inch long and you can see the tiny plant starting.  Then you can usually gently pluck the fernlet off the leaf and attach it to a piece of wood or rock.  I prefer to use superglue gel to attach them to wood as they attach to wood much better in the long run, plus get some nutrients from the wood.  Rocks hold them down better and they can attach to lava rock pretty well, smooth rocks not so much.  You can also stuff them into the holes on cholla wood but it will erode and dissolve into the water much faster than mopani or other denser woods.  You can attach them to decoration, or even attach them to grids of any kind including “moss shelves” if you want.  They definitely like a bit of texture to grab onto.

Java ferns, like other epiphytes, do not want to have their rhizomes planted in anything.  They are happy to drop their roots down into substrate (including foam filters) but don’t want their rhizome buried since that puts them at high risk for rotting.  Some of the happiest Java ferns I have grown were attached to smaller pieces of wood or lava rock that still let their roots dig down into substrate and/or mulm.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Odd Duck
Typo

[Artemas]

Thank you 

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/11/2023 at 10:23 PM, Ninjoma said:

I think they are roots from baby Java ferns. 

They are ferns which offshoot new plants via the leaves (I have some photos in my shrimp journal of mine), but yours have BBA all over them and likely are not going to do well. 

You'd probably want to dip them in easy carbon or reverse respiration.  (the link for RR is in the top section of the forums)  RR is essentially dipping the plants in seltzer water in a specific way to break down the algae.
 

This is what it would normally look like:

Edited April 15, 2023 by nabokovfan87
added video

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Agree with @Odd Duck. The Java fern is self propagating.