• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Moss ID

D

DRillo

Member
Joined
12 Jul 2011
Messages
52
Location
Clevedon
Hi All,

Brought my boy a venus fly trap recently and have noticed the moss below growing in it, wondering if anyone knows what it is and if it is suitable for aquarium use - I really like the look of it.

Thanks in advance

20150705_092321.jpg
 
It's kinda difficult to see picture is not that clear or i realy need a pair of goggles. :) It could be a Tortula Ruralis, but than you should see kind of tiny hair like fiber at the leaftip.
Like this
f171t3524p14350n2.jpg


If it is it can be used aquatic :). But mosses are sometimes dificult to identify, by family ok, but subspieces is often only to be determined by very small details, sometimes by microscope only.
It's a Leafmoss that's obvious, could be in the star moss where the Tortula is a member of as is the hair moss. This guide was lately posted in the UKAPS Growing Moss topic. http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/bbs/activities/BBSFGspac.htm :)

I believe many mosses can be used aquatic, most of them rather have it mosit than dry. Your flytrap likes it moist so thats a + already. It's just what environment parameters they prefere. And give them a chance to addapt. You could give it a try and put some in your tank just a small piece. Or do it emersed first just above the water and see how it addapts, slowly raise the water over time if it wants to propagate below the waterline. That what propagetes in the water is addapted. If it doesn't want to be aquatic it will grow the other way.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply zozo.
I cant see any 'hairs' at the tip of the leaves however it does look like a lot of the pictures of Star Moss.
Sounds like this wont last in a tank, but great advice re adding just above the water.
 
:) That depends, there are plenty star mosses growing in and around very wet grounds, river sides and other small streams. It often just a matter of time till somebody finds it somewhere bellow the water line. Rivers and streams expand in wet seasons and float those areas and after that the mosses are still there. This can be kind of mosses you also find far away from water. I alsways frown when someone states a certain kind of mos isn't aquatic. After all the origine of all moss is aqautic. I guess it's a matter of time and knowing how to propagate them back to water. It might take a generation. :)
 
dw1305 said:
Hi allProbably not, I don't think there are many acrocarpous mosses that will grow under water.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...
I agree, they can grow in very wet areas but I have also read there are not aquatic. Another thing I read is that acrocarpus mosses are not the ones preferred by moss keepers as they grow much slower than pleurocarpus ones. But honestly I never tried them, the ones I pick for my vivarium are always pleurocarps.

Jordi
 
If you like it complex and confusing you should definitively dive into the botanical world of mosses. :) Actualy quite funny they still don't seem to be sure if mosses should be considered plants are in a order of the primitive plants at the edge where it all plantlife began. And still much more complex to understand and much larger in diversity. It seems to have aquatic origine but still subdivided in the terrestrial order of plants. Epiphytic, lithophytic, some could be considered helophytic and even the Riccia Fluitans could be consider Hydrophytic. I thought i knew a little about plants, but reading in on mosses, damn that's a whole different ball game.

I'm putting things to the test just to see what happens. Took some haircap moss and did put it in all kind of places, Took a patch home from the forrest with dirt and all put in in a few cm of water and it is doing fine. Got some of that in wet live sphagnum on top of the tank and its soso and not realy happy turning dark red. Did put some next to other nice growing moss few centimeters above the waterline still moist and it's shrinking. Did put some submersed in the substrate, it's in there for a week now and that one still looks the same healty and lush as the one in the wet dirt. :) And did put some in wet sphagnum without firts that is also doing good.

It's puzzling.
 
Testing is the way to go, sure. For example, Riccia flutans and Riccardia chamaedryfolia are found in nature on muddy substrates but few or no guides will tell that they can live as aquatics, I suppose it sound very strange when someone attached them for the first time to a stone and submerged them. And it worked, for these species there is a real possibility of underwater living, they can go beyond these "very wet conditions or water splashes". But no one knows, there are hundred of species that live in that water limit, although my guess is that we will see in the coming years more species being incorporated to the hobby.

Jordi
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top