# Killies Import > Planted Tanks >  How easily it all goes out of shape

## timebomb

Hi, folks,

Those of us who grow mosses in our tanks would know how quickly they grow sometimes. And if one isn't diligent with pruning the mosses, the whole aquascape can go out of shape very quickly. My tank is going to turn into one big lump of moss soon  :Laughing:  Here are some pictures:

My tank looked like this when I started off with this aquascape in January this year:


3 months later, in April, it looked like this:


Now, this is what it looks like:


I'm showing this last picture to let some of you know that under certain conditions, mosses can take on a different shape. What's tied to the driftwood and the rocks in the foreground is Spiky Moss which usually grows flat. In my tank, however, it grows straight up, just like Erect Moss. Anyway, it looks like I have to tear everything down and start again. That's what the hobby is all about, isn't it? Put up, tear down, put up, tear down  :Laughing: 
Loh K L

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## fish newb

holy cow... you had a nice scape there tooo........ the moss stil looks awsome.....

its my first post here and -rain got me over here.... i have some moss that looks like the one he sent you and we both thought it was stringy... maybe i have "nano" moss too.....  :Rolling Eyes:  

im probably going to pm you about sending some for id.... but thats a whole nother topic for another time....

tank still looks great...

the original scape was nice looking too!

- andrew

(whops forgot to end with real name....)

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## CO2

Nice tank Loh!

Too much Spiky Moss is a good problem to have  :Wink:

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## RRG

:Laughing:  Thanks for the warning KL! It made me laugh hard seeing the Afro-hair do and thinking it could happen to my tank which is almost similar to your aquascape and exact type of moss.

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## |squee|

I quite liked the tank as it was in April! It had a very nice flow to it.

Aren't you going to trim it someday?

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## FC

I like the 1st and 2nd pics status. The 1st for the clean/fresh look and 2nd for the matured look. For the 3rd one... only the cosmetic sand still shine and the sand kind of having a more natural look.

I have not seen the tank since Apr 06, are the sands still clean without intervention?

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## cairocks

Humm.....Your 3rd picture is making me think.
I originally got some 'erect' moss from someone in AQ. Tied them to a piece of wood and let them grow in my tank. After sometime. It start to cling onto my background foam spread really fast and doesn't look erect at all. Posted a pic sometime back and some bros say it is spikey moss. Could they be actually spikey moss that some look erect whenI got them? But the thing is that 2 weeks ago, brought some to Far East and theycompared with some spikey on hand, it looked totally different. So now, my background is of some unknown moss.  :Question:   :Question:  Totally pizzled by it's identity.

Its original look....(the erect moss looking moss on the right)


It's current look

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## timebomb

> Aren't you going to trim it someday?


I'll probably do some pulling, Terence. The problem with moss, it's hard to trim them. Bits and pieces get scattered all over the tank and can mess up the aquascape. 




> I have not seen the tank since Apr 06, are the sands still clean without intervention?


I've not vacuumed or cleaned the sand since day one, Freddy. It's always very clean. 




> Totally pizzled by it's identity.


It's always hard to identify moss from pictures. I'm also confused by what you wrote. How is it the moss managed to cling to the styrofoam you were using as a backdrop when the picture you posted clearly shows the moss somewhere in the middle of the tank? There are also 2 kinds of moss in the first picture. So which is the one you're referring to?

The moss sold at Far East Aquatic's is probably Spiky Moss. I know because I gave the moss to them. 

Loh K L

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## cairocks

> It's always hard to identify moss from pictures. I'm also confused by what you wrote. How is it the moss managed to cling to the styrofoam you were using as a backdrop when the picture you posted clearly shows the moss somewhere in the middle of the tank? There are also 2 kinds of moss in the first picture. So which is the one you're referring to?
> 
> The moss sold at Far East Aquatic's is probably Spiky Moss. I know because I gave the moss to them. 
> 
> Loh K L


Oh....so the original erect moss was really over taken by some other moss somewhere along the way. 

The second picture was the erect moss in another tank. I had divided the erect moss into 2 pieces when I got them and put half in my main tank, and half in my small shrimp tank where I had taken the only picture of it. As the main tank's moss was all replaced by this unknown moss and those in shrimp tank had turned brown. I had no other picture to show how the erect moss looks like originally. Sorry for the confusion caused.


Cairocks

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## FC

Cairocks,

For mosses, IMO, their forms, shape and colour can differ greatly with tank conditions like light intensity, water temperature and CO2 level.

Just like any plants, Mosses can become stringy (leggy for stem plants) with low light as they attempt to reach for more light above. They dense up and grow stouter with enough light (intensity plus sufficient light hours). So, generally, it is impossible to tell/compare the moss type when they are not grown up in optimum or close to optimum condition. The spiky mosses you saw in Karin's place are probably ~80% optimum state and you can confidently identify/trust them visually as spiky moss.

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## timebomb

> Sorry for the confusion caused.


Chances are the moss that died in your tanks were genuine Erect Moss as we know this moss is likely to turn brown and die. For someone who's unfamiliar with the various aquarium mosses, it's hard to differentiate one moss from another. You have to have an eye for detail before you can tell. 

What you have now is probably normal Java Moss or possibly Taiwan Moss. Both could look like Spiky if grown well. When you got them and how much you paid for your moss are important clues to discovering the identity. Java Moss is cheap and people sometimes throw it away. Taiwan Moss has become relatively cheap too recently. It's highly unlikely that any shop will accidentally mix up their Spiky Moss with Java because the former still commands a good price in the market.

Loh K L

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## cairocks

Thank's guys for the reply....now so tempted to get some spikey from karin if only I can find somemore tank space... :P Already got 6 types of mosses, 2 types of fissiden and 2 types of pelia in my tiny 2 ft tank.  :Opps:

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