# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk > Aquatic Moss Club >  Have you seen any moss capsules lately ?

## Green Baron

After growing many species of mosses for sometime, I noticed only Singapore, Christmas and another spceies of 'Java like' moss from US produce capsules in _submersed_ form. 

I would like to find out if anyone has seen capsules growing from submersed from of Erect, Weeping, Taiwan and Java moss ?

Below is a photo showing the capsules of Singapore Moss. The pointed ones are young capsules while the club shaped ones are mature capsules.

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## strung_0ut

Gan,
Not from taiwan, weeping, erect, or java,
but I've got this one capsule coming out from this moss sent to me from a kind gent, said to be Moss #3 from Mosses and the men who love them part 3 http://www.killies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1099
It is a very lovely moss. 
Erect/Christmas


-Dennis

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## Green Baron

> Gan,
> Not from taiwan, weeping, erect, or java,
> but I've got this one capsule coming out from this moss sent to me from a kind gent, said to be Moss #3 from Mosses and the men who love them part 3 http://www.killies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1099
> It is a very lovely moss. 
> Erect/Christmas
> 
> 
> -Dennis


Moss #3 is indeed very lovely. I still don't know if it is Christmas Moss. I have it growing in my office tank and have also gave some to Kwek Leong to grown in his moss 'graden' ;-) So far I have not seen any capsule on this moss. 

If there is only 1 capsule, I would suggest you keep monitoring. 
Most LFS keep many type mosses in the same tank so it is quite common to find a few strands of _foreign_ moss when purchasing moss.

I have 1 capsule growing out of my Weeping Moss but I believe it could be Singapore Moss.

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## strung_0ut

Hey Gan,
There is possibility that it came from your weeping moss. Check this out, I was just watching bubbles come up from my diffusor and I saw these 4 capsules. One mature, one of them I don't think you can see in the picture. I can send them to you if you want, I'm sure more will pop up. I'm pretty good at keeping my mosses seperate and can actually see it coming out of the fronds. Its hard to get a better picture, theres stuff blocking ie. tubing, sticker, side sticker...
Weeping Moss


Dennis

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## budak

Mosses reproduce by releasing free-swimming sperm into water, which find their way into the female gametes (eggs). Once fertilised, a sporophyte forms (the visible spore capsule that we see) and grows out from the moss, and then releases spores to develop into new mosses (this is a simple way of putting it, the reality is much more complex and scandalous). 

Natural hybrids are known to be common with ferns, due to the exchange of gametes between species when spores and prothallus of different taxa find themselves in close promixation (i.e. opposites attract or ferns make wild whoopee). I suspect the same tendency occurs with mosses, especially since the few common aquatic species we keep belong to just a few (and allied) genera. Growing different mosses in the same tank thus runs the risk of creating hybrids that would make a botanist's life difficult.

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## timebomb

> Growing different mosses in the same tank thus runs the risk of creating hybrids that would make a botanist's life difficult.


Budak, I once asked the professor about this and he said moss will never hybridise even if we keep many different species in the same tank. A sperm from one moss can very well fertilise the egg of another but hybrids won't come about because moss spores are so simple in structure, they go back to either one of the parent species. That's just my explanation which obviously is pretty fuzzy. The prof can explain it much better. I'll see if I can ask him to write it all down the next time I meet him.

Loh K L

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## strung_0ut

> Budak, I once asked the professor about this and he said moss will never hybridise even if we keep many different species in the same tank. A sperm from one moss can very well fertilise the egg of another but hybrids won't come about because moss spores are so simple in structure, they go back to either one of the parent species. That's just my explanation which obviously is pretty fuzzy. The prof can explain it much better. I'll see if I can ask him to write it all down the next time I meet him.
> 
> Loh K L


Thats a good relief Mr. Loh, perhaps we can get more difficult mosses to grow by keeping them in the same tank as an easy to grow moss such as java moss.

Dennis

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## timebomb

> Moss #3 is indeed very lovely. I still don't know if it is Christmas Moss. I have it growing in my office tank and have also gave some to Kwek Leong to grown in his moss 'graden' ;-) So far I have not seen any capsule on this moss.


Gan, 

It took a while but Moss #3 is ready for its debut :smile: I call what's in the picture my Moss Pole  :Laughing: 



It looks like Christmas but isn't. It's not Taiwan Moss either. It's a Moss that's somewhere in between the 2  :Laughing: 



Loh K L

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## Green Baron

> Originally Posted by GanCW
> 
> Moss #3 is indeed very lovely. I still don't know if it is Christmas Moss. I have it growing in my office tank and have also gave some to Kwek Leong to grown in his moss 'graden' ;-) So far I have not seen any capsule on this moss.
> 
> 
> Gan, 
> 
> It took a while but Moss #3 is ready for its debut :smile: I call what's in the picture my Moss Pole 
> 
> ...


Is this the moss stick I passed to you ? I thought it looks different from Christmas Moss which is why I bought it  :Laughing:

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## victri

I think I noticed some capsules growing on my submersed weeping moss too.

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## Green Baron

KL,
The moss pole is lovely ! and your Downoi garden is really unique !

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## timebomb

Sorry for the late response, Gan but the answer is yes. The Moss Pole is the piece of driftwood you gave me a couple of weeks ago. Thanks, Buddy. It's a lovely Moss. I hope I can grow enough to make a moss wall. 

Loh K L

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## TyroneGenade

Hey! I had a good look at my Xmas moss last night and it is sending up spore capsules. I don't know if it is happy or applying its volutionary escape route. The tanks range from 17 to 21°C and the water is hard!

Ciao

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