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Gang,

I have a quick question. I purchased some Xmas Moss about 10 days ago and attached it with string on
my driftwood. A picture of it can be [link=Seen Here]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Aquascaping/61406_2.html" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link] (scroll to the bottom of that page, technical tank info
can be found on page 1 of that post).

Now, there seems to be some growing going on but I am not sure if that is correct. The new parts on the
moss are very light green colored and don’t have any of the details of the existing parts. It looks like
Y shapes the size of 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch. It is also happening much more often on the parts of the moss
that is closer to the water surface (and as such the light) than on the lower parts on the wood.

Is that how Xmas Moss grows?

Thanks in advance,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Great to hear you've got growth. The stuff is inded quite beautiful.

There should be bright green "dots" on the tip of each frond. This is the new growth coming through. If you see lots of green dots at the tips it's doing nicely.

It likes light and lower temps. 74-76oF is ideal. Warmer then that it may darken slightly and you get less of the the Christmas tree look. Above 80-82 it will probably brown.

I've got it in 2 tanks. With the Co2 and slightly cooler temp 78-80oF (i live in the tropics temperature is a headache) of the large tank it does nicely and grows quite quickly.
In the warmer non co2 tank growth is much slower and darker and not as "Christmasy".

Keep it trimmed so it doesn't get too dense. I just use a sharp scissors and give it a haircut. I have it on smaller pieces of wood that I can take out of the tank. If trimming in tank have a net ready to fish out the trimmed bits floating away. It attaches very fast and can become a pest growing everywhere if you let too much escape. You can attch the trimmed pieces to new parts of the wood to speed up the covering process or to use on new pieces of wood or rock. A few rocks covered in it and placed in the foreground or placed in with something bright green like Tenellus or Riccia looks great.This is great for creating divisions or lines between different sections of the aquascape.

I'll try to get a pic of the growing tips when I get home later.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Cup and Bensaf,

Thanks for your input.

It is not bright green dots that I am seeing. It is bright green Y shapes that even have additional Y shapes at their ends (grrr, I guess I can’t explain it that well), all of which are about 2 to 4 mm long.

I observe other areas that have tiny light green dots, which I assume is what you mean Bensaf. They are in various areas of the moss.

Unfortunately, my cheap camera cannot get a focus on the moss for a close-up, I tried to take a pic of it but it is all fuzzy.

Yeah, my tank is about 80 to 82 F these days, it is still pretty warm up here in NJ and there is no AC in the room with the tank. And I don’t have CO2.

Any ideas?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Ingo here's a close up I just took. You can see the green "dots" where the new growth is.

I'm sure it'll do ok as long as you are seeing some growth. No Co2 may slow it.

bensaf attached this image:

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

I was disconcerted after hearing about the low temperature necessities of the plant (my tanks are all relatively warm), so I e-mailed up the place where I obtained my bunch from. The response was that his tanks were generally in and around 80f, and his plants are fine. Most places I have browsed do read that they have an affinity for cool water, but, as it's been stated, 80 should be fine. Good luck with the moss.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 24-Aug-2005 13:01

Thanks again Cup and Bensaf,

Some of my Xmas moss looks like Bensaf’s picture, but some growth is clearly different. It seems more like there are entire new branches growing out that don’t have any of the fine structures (yet).

Tonight I will make an attempt to get a picture again, maybe if I go a little further away with the camera I can capture it and hopefully it would be viewable.

I will keep you posted, thanks again,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

OK,

I managed to take a picture of the Xmas Moss; it is not of the best quality.

It shows the area of the driftwood that is closest to the light. You can clearly see the Y shapes, lots of them in the center and one good profile on the left. The left one also seems to show that it is an extension of the moss itself and not a growth of a different plant that got “mixed into” the moss. I have a mixed in plantling as well, it is in the bottom middle part and can barely be identified as such if you haven’t seen it in the tank. It has small round leaves.

Any idea if this is normal Moss growth?

Ingo

LITTLE_FISH attached this image:

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

That looks like you have some riccia in with the Xmas moss.

Freebie! Score!





Riccia fluitans

Last edited by trystianity at 24-Aug-2005 17:16[/font]

What a relief ! I thought you were losing it and seeing things that weren't there

Yep, it's definately Riccia. Congratulations you got a free plant

Probably had a few small pieces mixed in with the moss. As you can see for my money it's probably the easiest plant in the world to grow, despite it's reputation, grows very very fast too. It's easily outpacing the moss.

So what to do with it ?

You can leave it there and let it continue to grow (I've seen a lot of people use it mixed with moss here but that's mainly 'cod they're using the moss to keep it held down, it's naturally a floating plant and wont attach to anything), personally I feel Riccia distracts from the "aged" natural look of moss.

You can use that small piece to make a little Riccia farm and "harvest" it.If you take even a small piece like that and let it float on the surface you'll be amazes at how quickly it multiplies and thickens into a big wad of plants. You can then pull chunks off the main wad and tie to rocks with a hairnet and use for foreground decoration. Using the hairnet method it's not so difficult to maintain and I use a lot in my small tank (pics will up soon. The main wad will keep going, I have it floating in the big tank to shade some Anubias and have to thorw out chunks of the stuff every week.

It's a plant you can have fun and play with. It's easy to grow, it will pearl even in non Co2 tanks if given enough light, just needs a bit of maintenance. Once you have a method to keep it tied down (it desperately wants to float) it's just a matter of keeping it trimmed so the held down part gets light and doesn't rot and the top comes floating off. Once it gets to about 1 inch tall give it a haircut and it'll be fine.

In the same way as the moss looks well tied to rocks and mixed in the foreground with bright greens, the riccia works great tied to rocks which are used to highlight dark green plants. Moss and Riccia does work together great when both are tied to their own rocks and then the rocks are layed out with each highlighting the other. This would work great as a "border" to your field of tennellus, you could really fill out that front left corner section

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Tryst and Bensaf,

Thank you soooooo much for identifying the plant that tricked itself into my moss

As to what to do with it now. Well, I am for sure with Bensaf on the fact that “Riccia distracts from the aged natural look of moss”. But how will I get it out? It’s everywhere. I guess the only way to remove it is to take the moss off again and carefully try to strip all pieces of Riccia away. That’s gonna be painful as it is everywhere, in some areas only as one small green Y shape, in others (like in the pic) as the dominant plant.

As Bensaf points out, I agree that it will outpace the moss (and is doing so already) and as such I would loose the plant that I actually purchased. That is for sure not my goal.

So there I go, I am getting a free plant and all I do is complain, complain, complain

In addition, why would I have to wear a hairnet when I tie the Riccia to a rock, isn’t my hair short enough ]

Thanks a lot,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I have had this problem with java moss and riccia; not a problem, persay, as I actually liked the look. Eventually, the riccia just grew itself out---this sounds odd, but bear with me. Once the stuff reached a sizeable chunk, it merely floated to the top without argument. If you can, though, a bit of tweezer action wouldn't hurt.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 25-Aug-2005 19:47

In addition, why would I have to wear a hairnet when I tie the Riccia to a rock, isn’t my hair short enough

Should come off easy enough. It's a floater and won't be attached. At this stage if you untie the thread your moss may have already attached. Don't wory about breaking the Riccia even a little piece will continue on it's merry way as you can see.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Cup, Tryst, and Bensaf,

Thank you all so much.

Hopefully I will have an additional tank (20G) this Saturday. I need to remove lots of plants (parts) from my 29G as it begins to be too dense in some areas. I don’t want to throw them out because I would really like to utilize them in the “soon to be coming” 125G. So I park them in the 20, if all goes well.

I will use that chance to “net” some Riccia to a rock in the new 20. I will keep you posted.

Thanks again,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club