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On 11/11/2002 5:08:05 PM
The Chritmas moss is not the same as the one called Taiwan Moss. Let me try and clear up the confusion. In the old days, only one fish shop in Singapore (Crowntol) had this beautiful moss and they called it Triangular moss. The Triangular moss later became known as Christmas moss. Recently, something like about a year ago, a new moss from Taiwan appeared in the fish shops. They look like Christmas but their fronds do not have the triangular shapes. This moss is known as Taiwan Moss and is also sometimes called Mini Moss. Someone also gave me a bit of moss he collected from a nature reserve in Singapore. He said he grows them together with the Christmas moss in his tanks and they look exactly the same.
A lot of confusion arises from the fact that when grown poorly, the Christmas moss looks like Taiwan Moss, or Willow Moss for that matter. Some people even say the Christmas Moss looks exactly the same as Java. In such cases, it's usually because they have adult SAEs in their tanks. Adult SAEs will eat the Christmas moss and prune them in such a way that only the branches are left uneaten, thereby giving the wrong impression that Christmas is Java. Cherry Barbs are also known to eat moss too.
If you are using cooling fans, you have to let them run non-stop before you can bring the temp in your tanks down to 28 degrees C. If you are not getting that temperature, it would probably be because your fans are too small. I once used 4 three-inch square cooling fans and they didn't even lower the temp in my tank by half a degree. Now I use 3 four-inch square fans and the temp hovers around 27 to 28 degrees most of the time. The lowest temp ever recorded in my tank was 24.7 C on one very cold December morning.
To grow the christmas moss well, try and add a bit more iron into your tanks. It does not matter if you are using high or low lighting. Even CO2 injection is not that important. Soft water and low temperatures are the 2 things that helps the moss grow well.
Take a look at my homepage at:
http://www.geocities.com/aironfire
Loh K L
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