Re: [RML] Microsorium brassii
Gary Lange (rainbowfish4u2 at yahoo.com)
Tue, 25 Oct 2005 10:50:19 -0700 (PDT)
First, It's Microsorum not Microsorium. Many books
have misspelled it. Note the Tropica site has it
correct.
I guess the first question is: Will brassii really
live in your tanks? Many of the MIcrosorums will not.
(I'm pretty sure I got that info from Klaus of
Tropica when he spoke in the US several years ago).
When I was deep inside Irian Jaya near the village of
Faowi we found what looked like M. pteropus (regular
java fern) growing on the river banks and the dead
logs reaching out into the river. Never found them in
the river even though we named our unknown river
"plant creek". It had at least 2 and probably three
types of plants in the water. However it was what I
would call a wideleaf version of pteropus. I'll have
to check back with the guys to see if the plant lived
and thrived in their tanks. They didn't realize what
it was. Actually this was the only observation that
the visitor had to offer. All of the other
information went from them to me :-) After that
sighting of fern I continued to look for it during the
rest of my time there. Didn't see it in any of the
other areas that we went. You should also take a look
at one of the ANGFA articles written by Bruce Hansen
on his trip to New Guinea. I forget whether he went
to IJ or the eastern half, Papua. He talked about
walking thru great patches of Microsorum xxx. Somehow
I thought it was pteropus but it's been awhile. A
good reason for you to buy the back issues :-) I
think it's really important to remember that whatever
you come up with for a "biotope tank" that it will
really be a sham. Unless you are pairing fish from a
specific region with plants from a specific region
it's not a real biotope. Remember that New Guinea, if
placed on top of the map of the US would stretch from
New York City to Denver Colorado. I don't think you
could pull a water plant from the state of New York
and put it in with some willow moss types from the
alpine streams of Colorado and call it a Biotope tank.
I think in a lot of cases that's what happens with
these so-called Biotope tanks. Just find what works
good together and enjoy it.
gwlange
--- parin_iceyfist <parin_iceyfist at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>
> After doing some research, I've decided that I want
> Java Fern in my
> tank. It looks like a superb plant!
>
> Of course, after some more research, I came across
> the alledged PNG
> Java Fern: Microsorium brassii. It's got narrower
> leaves than
> Microsorium pteropus (normal Java Fern).
>
> However, I've been unable to find a place to
> purchase this M. brassii.
> I did however find "Narrow Leaf Java Fern" grown by
> Tropica.
> Here's a link:
> http://www.tropica.com/productcard.asp?id=008A
>
> But there seems to be some discussion whether the
> Tropica plant is the
> same as M. brassii. Some say the real M. brassii
> still looks somewhat
> different and that Tropica's "Narrow" is a
> cultivated variant.
>
> So I was wondering, does anyone have M. brassii and
> perhaps has some
> pictures of it? So I can compare with this "Narrow
> Leaf" variant by
> Tropica?
>
> Perhaps anyone even knows if (and where) M. brassii
> is commercially
> available? Because if not, I'll be once again on a
> wild goose chase. ;)
>
> Greetings
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