Xmas moss - what colour should it be ?

[peterkoh]

Hi folks,

Recently, my colleague passed me about half of the xmas moss he got from Nature. I just left them on top of my driftwoods in the tank without tying them down. But it has been 2 weeks already and they still look as brown as I first got them. Is there something wrong ? I thought they should be greenish in colour ? Btw, the other more demanding plants in my tank like egeria, cabomba, marble queen, red myrio, riccia etc are doing well.

[hoppinghippo]

xmass moss if brown means koyak, should be green like any other plant. but brown doesn't mean the end, be patient and the green moss will grow out in time.
But sometimes it's simply cuz the moss you bought from nature is green on top and brown below,if you manage to transport it as one full piece and slowly open up the piece to plant upright, you'd see green, if like me you mix the piece up and slowly tear clumps to plant, you'll end up with brown bits mixed with green, ie. some are upside down, but doesn't matter . I bought 2 batches from nature, 1st batch didn't plant very well, was brown (upside down) but eventually grew ok. the 2nd batch I learnt my mistake and was more careful in unfolding the mat of moss to plant upright.

[peterkoh]

I see. How do you grow your xmas moss ? Do you tie them down to driftwoods ? How about light requirements ? Thks.

[cbph]

I bought my x-mass moss at Nature before, not very good, a lot of portion is brown colour. My existing x-mass moss was bought at Petmart. It come in carpet a form. I tied them on a driftwood. Once it start to grow steadily, it will be green in colour.

[binbeto]

If it is newly bought a bit brown, it's ok... will grow new shoot.

Take note of the tank temperature. They grow better at temp around 27 deg.

[gchoo]

Basically, the cooler the temp of the tank, the faster they grow... it takes around 2-3 months for the moss to grow properly

[focus-T]

Hi,

can you tell me where is Petmart? I like to check it out.

thnks.

[cbph]

Petmart address :
Blk 151 Serangoon North Ave 2 #01-79

They are located at the corner, next to Rainbow.

[Simon]

moss takes awhile to adapt to our tanks.. even for me, a transfer of moss from 1 tank to another usually takes a couple of weeks b4 u actually see any growth.. and the best thing abt moss is how hardy they r.. and I agree temp. makes alot of difference

[hoppinghippo]

peter: you can tie the moss to anything, or tie to netting or mesh to put on the side of the tank wall. and yes you must wait about 2-3 mths for a carpet to form, i don't use any chiller at all and my moss still grows tho maybe prob slower than those with chillers or fans, so if you don't hiam abt speed of growth just plant it and wait!

[jellydot72]

Hi,

Correct lah...Christmas Moss, grows well in cooler temperature. Once i have them in three different set up at three different temperature. So the experiment shows that. They will develope wide triangular shape in cooler tank. And they grow fast too. They loves little shade. Strong lights is not encourage although they still grow.

One more way for these moss is to use them as a background. Some or rather many have seen those being display in shows or LFS (dunno if they still use this) Get those black colored plastic netting from DIY shop. I think they use this as a kinda of outdoor fencing. Choose those with holes like the size of five cents. Why? firstly it allows the moss to grow out from them and secondly allow you to fasten it with a suction cap(those that comes with your Eheim filter). Now place a layer of the moss openly not too close like you wanna dried some 'kiam her'(salted fish) heh heh heh[]on the net. Next sandwich the moss with another net (same size)You may want to cut a pcs double the size of the back of your tank and fold it into two. laying the moss on one half and then fold the other to sandwich the moss. Fasten the corners with the suction cap and u-shape hook that holds the ehiem filetr pipe.Now you are ready. Place them at the back of your tank. Lastly sit back and relax. Once it starts to grow and carpet the back you will not see those netting or suction caps liow. To maintain just simply removes pcs of moss and if you tired of them just take the whole pcs out!

If you have small tank and dun wanna too much hassle of using substrate. Just use these as the base. Beautiful too once they cover the base fully and have some small drift woods in them and nanas plant

[cbph]

With sufficient light and CO2, X-mass moss can actually produce quite a number of big and small bubbles under their leaves.