my hornwort keep shedding its needles

are there conditions under which hornwort flourish ?

I put mine into a very clean tank and it started shedding its pine needles almost the next day .... you can imagine the mess cleaning up all those needles from the bottom of the tank

Really envious whenever i see hornwort that is so long and strong

i thought hornwort is supposed to be a 'throw-in-tank-and-forget' plant ?

help

Leave it as it is first. It is probably shedding/melting because of the new tank environment. Give it some time and you will see new shoots.

[Jon-san]

I threw in a 4" bunch into my EBH grow out tank. Now I have a thick bundle easily several meters long. Only LED lights on about 10hrs a day, no CO2 or additional nutrients added. Just leave it inside for awhile, try to avoid too much "tumbling" from water current. Let the plant adjust to the new tank parameters. Soon they should start growing out. Do bear in mind that even though hornworts can grow under lower light conditions, they really only grow very fast under higher light conditions.

i envy u

i keep mine in a natural tank without any lights pumps or filters
they get indirect sunlight most of the day and direct sunlight about 2hrs a day when sun is low

maybe thats why

The plant is just adapting to the tank conditions. Give it some time to adapt. If there are fishes in the tank, some of them are bound to give it a nibble especially if the hornworts are floating.

Originally Posted by edng

are there conditions under which hornwort flourish ?

I put mine into a very clean tank and it started shedding its pine needles almost the next day .... you can imagine the mess cleaning up all those needles from the bottom of the tank

Really envious whenever i see hornwort that is so long and strong

i thought hornwort is supposed to be a 'throw-in-tank-and-forget' plant ?

help

Your hornwort is dying.

It could be due to presence of copper in your tank or because of high salt content

Hornwort is very sensitive to copper, it will strip itself in the presence of copper

As for salt, it will shed it leaves in large amount and become "botak" in weeks to come if condition is not changed. Having said so, even if condition goes back to good, leaves shedded will probably not grow back or take a long time to grow back. But your plant will continue to grow "taller" with new leaves

no copper in the tanks

i have betta and they will also die with copper

ok thank you for the advise and feedback , tiny little sprouts have started to come out .... next batch of hornwort I will keep it in a netting first until they acclimitize to the tank ..... the clean up of those needle leaves still giving me bad dreams ha ha

thank you again

[fireblade]

My hornworts used to grow very well in my shrimp tank till I add in excel and liquid fertilizer then all disappeared.

Originally Posted by edng

no copper in the tanks

i have betta and they will also die with copper

ok thank you for the advise and feedback , tiny little sprouts have started to come out .... next batch of hornwort I will keep it in a netting first until they acclimitize to the tank ..... the clean up of those needle leaves still giving me bad dreams ha ha

thank you again

It would help a lot if you gave us your tank parameters. There are many reasons why plants don't do well, without knowing your specific parameters, then all we can do is guess.

Originally Posted by JadeIceGreen

It would help a lot if you gave us your tank parameters. There are many reasons why plants don't do well, without knowing your specific parameters, then all we can do is guess.

1ft cube tank

no substrate
no filters
no air pump
3 female bettas
jungle of java moss (grown to about 1+kg now)
windelov
3 floating water lettuce
floating salvinia
water very clear but walls all with mature algae growth

essentially an almost self-contained zero-electricity environment

just water top-ups every 2-3 weeks from evaporation