# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk > Aquatic Moss Club >  6 Mosses

## timebomb

Hi, folks,

I took some photographs of my mosses. I thought about uploading them to the forum so they can serve as a guide for those who are looking to buy Taiwan and Weeping Mosses from the fish shops. But I thought maybe we should play a game first  :Laughing: 

Here's a picture of 6 mosses. They are Taiwan, Erect, Christmas, Java, Weeping and Singapore Moss (not necessarily in that order).

Can you tell which is which?

Start from left to right and let's see who has a keen eye for mosses  :Laughing: 



Loh K L

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## BeyondGomer

Erect, Taiwan, Java,Christmas, Weeping and Singapore Moss

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## TS168

ok. let me try my luck.

From Left to Right:

Christmas Moss
Weeping Moss
Java Moss
Taiwan Moss
Erect Moss
Singapore Moss

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## imported_Afroturf

Christmas, Erect, Java, Taiwan, Weeping, Singapore.

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## PohSan

Hmm... let me try:

Taiwan, Christmas, Java, Erect, Singapore??, Weeping??

Regards,
Ong Poh San

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## imported_lily

My guess;
Singapore, Erect, Java, Taiwan, Christmas and Weeping moss??

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

Left to right:
Christmas, Erect, Java ,Singapore, Taiwan, Weeping

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## tony.ch

Good game!
Chiristmas, erect, java, singapore, taiwan, weeping
What's the prize?

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## kc

This is quite interesting. 
My guess: Christmas, Taiwan, Java, Weeping, Singapore, Erect.

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## Green Baron

L-R
Christmas, Erect, Java,Singapore, Taiwan, Weeping Moss 

Gan

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## Green Baron

Erect, Java, Weeping and Taiwan are quite easy to tell apart if you have seen them. Christmas and Singapore are the tought ones. It would be even more challenging if KL had used the Singapore Moss form my tank :-D

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## ectan

L-R

Christmas, Erect, Java, Taiwan, Weeping & Singapore

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## francis

L-R

Christmas,Erect,Java,Weeping,Taiwan,Singapore

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## alan

the 1st and 2nd look the same to me.... the 4th and 5th also look the same to me so my guess is 
first and second are christmas
3rd is java
4th singapore
5th tawian 
6th weeping

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## strung_0ut

My guess from left to right
hmmmmm...

Erect, Christmas, Java, Singapore, Taiwan, & Weeping

Dennis S.

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## aldrinsl

From left to right Erect,Christmas,Java,Singapore,Taiwan and Weeping Moss . That is what they look like to me!!

Regards
Aldrin

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## timebomb

Thanks for playing the game, guys.

For the record, 3 persons came up with the correct answers. They are Ghazanfar Ghori who lives in the USA, Tony from the UK and Gan C W from Singapore. Congratulations!! We'll be writing to you soon about your prizes  :Laughing:  

But seriously, the mosses were arranged in alphabetical order. From left to right, they are Christmas, Erect, Java, Singapore, Taiwan, Weeping. 

All of you were able to identify which was the Java Moss although the frond that was shown in the picture wasn't exactly a good specimen. Alan was very close with his answers but he thought the first 2 fronds belong to the same moss. 

I'm posting more pictures of the 6 mosses. These are "up close and personal" pictures, taken with macro mode at distances of less than 2 cm (0.8 inches). At such close quarters, the mosses should be easier to identify. Is it really?  :Laughing: 

In no particular order this time:

*Moss A*


*Moss B*


*Moss C*


*Moss D*


*Moss E*


*Moss F*


Loh K L

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

Ok, up close its a little more difficult to ID. Primarily because
you cannot compare the relative size. With some of these
I'm pretty sure I'm right - not so sure with others.
But here goes anyway...

A = Taiwan
B = Erect
C = Singapore
D = Weeping
E = Java moss
F = Christmas

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## Green Baron

KL,
Teasing us again ? ;-) I must say this is tougher than the first challenge !
The prize must be better this time ok ? 

Not only have you gotten people looking for mosses everywhere, now people are taking their mosses out of their tank to examine them under magnifying glass !  :Laughing:   :Laughing:  

I will let the rest guess first ;-)

Yandy and other moss collectors .. where are you guys ?? 

I just read at Arofanatic forum that someone lost $800 worth of belongings when he left his valuables at a bus stop to look at a patch of moss in a stream just beside the bus stop !!

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## Green Baron

Two of the Vesicularias are difficult to tell apart. Anyway this is my stab at it :
T-B : Taiwan, Erect, Christmas, Weeping, Java and Singapore Moss.

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

Gave it a closer look. I'm pretty confident I got it right.

Good thread! I have never paid this much attention to the minute
differences in some of these.

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## Slaigar

I have never seen Taiwan moss yet but here are my guesses: Taiwan, Erect, Singapore, Weeping, Java, Christmas.

I was very tempted to do a switch around Singapore, Weeping and Christmas moss.

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## Joey Wang

My guess: Top to bottom
A: Weeping
B: Erect
C: Xmas
D: Singapore
E: Java
F: Taiwan

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## Barbarik

Gan, I'm here! I'm here!
Until I get myself a good microscope, I'll give this guessing game a miss.
But, wait! I do not want others to give up this very interesting 'game'.
I will contribute the prizes for the winners of the second 'game'. Two full fronds of Taiwan moss to every winner. Yes, you read it right! Taiwan moss  :Shocked:  . The true Taiwan moss that I bought from Mermaid & not from any other shops selling cheap 'Taiwan moss'.
Sorry, can't give more than 2 full fronds to each winner. Two full fronds should cost me close to $10. Collection at my place, please. Overseas winners will get the moss by normal shipping. Anyone wants to sponsor the speed post for our overseas winners???  :Laughing:  
Mr Loh will also give additional prizes to the winners  :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:  .
So, guys, keep your guesses coming!!! :wink: 

Regards,
Yandy

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## Green Baron

> Gan, I'm here! I'm here!
> Until I get myself a good microscope, I'll give this guessing game a miss.


:-( Just guess for the fun of it ! If you get it right, you get to keep the 2 Taiwan fronds  :Laughing:

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## BeyondGomer

Taiwan Erect Singapore Weeping Java moss Christmas perhaps?

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## aquazeebo

I will try too  :Laughing:  

A - Taiwan
b - Erect
c - Singapore
d - Weeping
e - Java
f - Christmas

Radek

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## stormhawk

KL, I think I'll give it a shot.

A) Taiwan Moss
B) Christmas Moss
C) Erect Moss
D) Weeping Moss
E) Java Moss
F) Singapore Moss

Not sure if I'm right but heck, why not. :wink:

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## ectan

My guess,

T-B :

Taiwan
Erect
Singapore
Christmas
Java
Weeping


___________
EngChuan

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## tony.ch

Very interesting to see all the mosses close up. This is much harder than the first round but after much squinting i've come up with:
Taiwan-Erect-singapore-weeping-java-xmas.  :Confused:  
Can't wait for the next round!

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## TanVincent

well worth a shot

Taiwan
Erect
singapore
weeping
java
xmas

Cheers
Vincent

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## strung_0ut

just got a lot tougher  :Twisted Evil:  

my stab is:
weeping, erect, christmas, taiwan, java, singapore

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## francis

Just trying my luck

T-B
Taiwan 
Erect
Singapore
Weeping
Java
Christmas

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## dts_spawn

T-B
moss A:Taiwan 
moss B : Erect 
moss C : Singapore 
moss D : Weeping 
moss E : Java moss 
moss F : Christmas

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## blur one

My shot in the dark....

A = Singapore
B = Erect
C = Weeping
D = Taiwan
E = Java

 :Laughing:

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## stormhawk

KL, 2nd try, was looking at some of own mosses and I realised I made a mistake or two. So here's the new top-to-bottom list.

A) Taiwan Moss
B) Erect Moss
C) Singapore Moss
D) Weeping Moss
E) Java Moss
F) Christmas Moss

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## timebomb

Hi, folks,

You guys are good  :Shocked: .

I thought the puzzle was tough. Frankly, although I took the photographs, I have difficulties identifying them myself. But many of you got the answers correct. I must say Ghazanfar Ghori impressed me the most as he was really quick with his answer. He correctly identified the mosses in less than half an hour after I posted the puzzle. For the record, this is the correct answer:

Moss A - Taiwan
Moss B - Erect
Moss C - Singapore
Moss D - Weeping
Moss E - Java
Moss F - Christmas

Besides Ghazanfar (USA), Mark Mendoza (USA), Tony aka Gomer (USA), Radek (Poland), Tony (UK), Vincent Tan (Singapore), Francis Yap (Singapore),Willy Wee (Singapore) and JianYang (Singapore) also got the answers correct. I'm not sure if Yandy has enough Taiwan Mosses to give to so many people. I think his $220 piece of driftwood would be stripped bare of mosses even if he sends only 2 fronds to each winner  :Laughing: . 

Don't look at me, I didn't promise any prizes  :Laughing: . 

But since Yandy made a promise, I would hate to disappoint the winners. Let's compromise. I will put up another puzzle and the first 3 persons to get the answers correct will receive either Taiwan or Weeping Mosses from me. It's your choice and I'll try and send more than just 2 fronds. But this time, please send your answers to me through private message or email. This is to prevent "copying" of answers  :Laughing: . The contest is over the moment I receive 3 correct answers. 

Here's the puzzle. Identify, from left to right, which is which:



Loh K L

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## timebomb

By the way, if you haven't noticed, I've removed the earlier close-up pictures of the mosses from this thread. This is so you can't solve the puzzle by comparing the mosses in the above picture with those earlier ones. I can't do anything about it if you have saved them to your computer though. 

If you're going to make a guess based solely on luck, take note that the possible number of combinations in such a puzzle is 6 factorial. In other words, there are 720 possible answers but only one would be correct  :Laughing: 

Have fun.

Loh K L

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## Green Baron

This is getting tougher and tougher !  :Shocked:

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

Yeah I just PMed Loh my guesses. I cannot call it more than a guess,
it's really difficult to ID these - on most of them you cannot even
see the branching variations. 

My hat's off in advance to the person who can ID this 
correctly - you're the moss king!

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## Barbarik

Loh, for the 3rd 'game', the 1st 3 winners will get either Taiwan or weeping moss. What's the amount will be? One handfull???  :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:  
Even if there are hundreds of people trying their luck, as mentioned, if everyone make his wild guess, there will only be one correct answer out of 720 tries!!!  :Crying:  

To the earlier game-winners, as promised (did I promise???  :Rolling Eyes:  ), each of you will get from me 2 full fronds of the Taiwan Moss. Winners from Singapore, please collect from me next Thursday 6th May 2004 anytime from 12 noon to 12 midnight. I will be making myself available to you guys on that day, so please make yourself available to collect from me too.  :Very Happy:  Sorry, no other day is possible for me. Leave me a pm with you number & I will contact you.
For our oversea winners, I will send to one of you 1st. If the moss can survive the journey, I will send the moss to the rest. However, if the moss can't survive the journey, we will try to figure out the next option. Or anyone can give a better suggestion or willing to sponsor the speed parcel postage fee??? :wink: 

Regards,
Yandy

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

> Even if there are hundreds of people trying their luck, as mentioned, if everyone make his wild guess, there will only be one correct answer out of 720 tries!!!


That's assuming there are no duplicate guesses!

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## Green Baron

My hat's off to those who got it right the 2nd round. 
Most people probably have only Java, Christmas and/or Singapore. I got all 6 mosses in my tank and yet I got it wrong !!  :Opps:   :Opps:  

KL, 
I am sure your inbox is flooded with pm by now  :Laughing:  By tomorrow, you may run out of disk space !!  :Shocked:

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## Barbarik

Loh did not mention about the number of quesses each person is allowed to make, did he??? No, I don't think so !!! Maybe we can flood his inbox with lots & lots of PMs with all kinds of combination of anwers.  :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:  
So guys, keep your wild guesses flowing!!! :P :P :P :P :P :P :P 

Regards,
Yandy

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## aquazeebo

Hi guys
This time this is very very hard to tell. I will not even try to write any combination  :Cool:  . I don't have a luck in lotto-like games  :Laughing:  
I wish luck to all.

Radek W

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## tony.ch

I've had a gamble - I don't fancy my chances - I've never won anything on the lottery. All the mosses are so similar - who'd be a bryologist?  :Very Happy:

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## alan

i got a little question but its not about the quiz  :Very Happy:  about the second quiz... did you happen to name the moss picture by their name ? or maybe im just a bit late to check out the picture but it seem that it has the answer in it when you right click ==> properties... maybe its just me

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## RonWill

Alan, you don't have to check the properties. Just hit 'Quote'...

Yandy, mighty generous of you for distributing the fronds. On the bright side, the crew-cut look is 'in'... even for mosses!  :Rolling Eyes:  

Kwek Leong, now that you've compiled all mosses into one (with a clueless jpeg name)... guess why everyone is saying that it's tough!!  :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:  Good game to observe while it lasted... even for a fish-person :wink:

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## Green Baron

> i got a little question but its not about the quiz  about the second quiz... did you happen to name the moss picture by their name ? or maybe im just a bit late to check out the picture but it seem that it has the answer in it when you right click ==> properties... maybe its just me


Alan,
You are so smart ! This is thinking out of the box ! Should have done that instead of pulling my hair trying to figure out the ID  :Laughing:   :Laughing:

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## BeyondGomer

Next thing you know, we will play "name that rotala" or "name that ludwigia"....by their roots  :Wink:

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## Slaigar

Maybe the second quiz should be voided then if the answer was so easy to find. I might have loss some hair from quiz 2, but the knowledge is very helpful for quiz 3. As much as I would like some Taiwan moss, it is not fair for Yandy's generous(and pricey!) donation to be taken advantage of. But this one is up to Yandy and Mr. Loh. It is just too bad that we cannot athenticate our answer is genuine.

Or maybe we should redo quiz 2  :Twisted Evil:  . Different picture of course.

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## kc

Just when I was about to give up, someone comes out with a sure correct answer.  :Smile:

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## timebomb

Hi, folks,

It was real silly of me not to realise that by clicking on "quote" anyone can see the filenames of the pictures. Fortunately for this 3rd puzzle, the filename is such it won't tell you anything  :Laughing: 

The puzzle is very tough as there are very few clues. Ghazanfar Ghori said that if anyone can come up with a correct answer, he deserves to be named "Moss King". Well, folks, I've received 9 private messages and guess what? Someone did come up with the correct answer  :Shocked:  And he is none other than Ghazanfar himself. So far, Ghazanfar has been spot-on with his answers on all 3 puzzles. I think he really deserves the title of "The King of Mosses". 

Now that you know Ghazanfar is the only person who came up with the correct answer, I would urge those of you who have pmed me your answers to try again. Remember the quiz isn't over until I receive correct answers from 3 persons. So there's 2 more to go.

Yandy, mosses are good travellers so they should survive the long journey to either the USA or UK easily. If you're not sure how to pack them, take a look at this thread. You're being very generous with your Taiwan Moss and I'm sure the guys here appreciate your kind gesture very much. However, it wouldn't be fair to you to give away so many of the Taiwan Moss for free when it cost you so much to buy them. So I would suggest that you leave the overseas hobbyists to me. In other words, I will send the Taiwan Moss to Ghazanfar, Mark Mendoza, Tony aka Gomer, Radek and Tony from UK.

Ghazanfar, being the "King of Mosses", deserves more than just Taiwan Moss so I will be sending Weeping Moss to him too. The next 2 persons to come up with the correct answer for the 3rd puzzle will get Weeping Moss as well. I know this 3rd puzzle is very tough so I'm going to give you all a clue :-

Mark Mendoza who was the first person to respond to the puzzle sent in this answer:- From left to right: Christmas, Erect, Taiwan, Java, Weeping, Singapore

Well, the clue is not only was his answer wrong but amazingly, Mark also didn't get a single moss correct  :Laughing: 

Loh K L

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## timebomb

Someone included "Willow Moss" in his answer. To clarify, there's no Willow Moss in the picture. They are, not in any order, Weeping, Taiwan, Erect, Christmas, Singapore and Java mosses. 

Willow Moss is easy to identify. It's very different from the other 6 mosses. Here's a picture of a single strand of Willow, up close:



Loh K L

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## Green Baron

Ghazanfar, you deserve the title of 'Moss King' !

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## timebomb

> Ghazanfar, do deserve the title of 'Moss King' !


And maybe you should be Moss Prince, Gan  :Laughing: 

Folks, I'm delighted to announce that Gan C W is the second person to come up with the correct answer. He has kept the Singapore flag flying for us. Let's give him a big round of applause  :Laughing: 

Loh K L

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

Woah!  :Shocked:  

I didn't expect to win. Maybe I should run out and buy a lottery ticket,
seems like I'm on a roll!

Congrats to Gan - this last one was really really tough!

I'm looking forward to receiving the weeping moss and taiwan moss!
That'll complete my collection of the ones on the pictures! I think
Gwee sent me some Singapore moss earlier but I'm not 100% certain.
But that should be easier to come by than these other two anyway!
Can't wait!  :Very Happy:

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## Wackytpt

My guess is 

Taiwan 
Erect 
singapore 
weeping 
java 
xmas

Nicholas

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## Barbarik

wackytpt,
Please sign off with your real name. Use the edit function. Do it fast before you get "Timebombed"!!!  :Shocked:   :Shocked:   :Shocked:  

For the answer, please use the PM mode. Who knows, you might be giving a perfect answer & become the 3rd winner but because you did not follow simple regulations, your answer might be rejected!!  :Crying:   :Crying:   :Crying:  

Regards,
Yandy:

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## RonWill

> Do it fast before you get "Timebombed"!!!


Yandy, thanks for watching out for your friends. Nice to see forum becoming self-regulating.

Nicholas, welcome to the forum. I see you've edited your post real quick! :wink: Stick around and enjoy your stay.

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## tony.ch

Congratulations Gan and Ghanzanfar - I prefer to give you the title of moss masters!
Cheers Tony

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## BeyondGomer

perhaps King and Queen Moss Masters?...but I guess we'll need to let them fight over who is king and who is queen  :Wink:

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## Green Baron

> perhaps King and Queen Moss Masters?...but I guess we'll need to let them fight over who is king and who is queen


It doesn't really matter. The important thing is we are (hopefully) more kowledgeable about mosses now than six months ago when the only moss most people knew were Java and Christmas and most can't tell the difference between the two !

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## timebomb

> Please sign off with your real name. Use the edit function. Do it fast before you get "Timebombed"!!!


Thanks for helping to moderate the forum, Yandy. But these days, I no longer insist users sign off with their real names. It would be great if they do but if they don't, I won't make a fuss over it. 

I cut my teeth, so to speak, on the Aquatic Plants Digest. Over there, almost everyone uses a real name so I thought there aren't any valid reasons for anonymity. But over the last few months, I've got to know a couple of guys who are really nice and friendly people. They are members of this forum too and for various reasons, they chose to use nicks instead of their real names. One was a victim of stalking so he was reluctant to identify himself. Another works in a highly-sensitive post with the government and his boss will be displeased if he uses his real name on the net. One of my own moderators, in fact also uses a nick too because he hangs around forums where hackers prowl. 

If new members sign off with real names, we are more than happy to welcome them. But if they don't, we will assume they have good reasons for not doing so. 

I will, however, continue to "timebomb" anyone who uses sms language in their posts. Even if it's just a "u" for "you", I will be there to kickass  :Laughing: 

Loh K L

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## timebomb

> perhaps King and Queen Moss Masters?...


If Ghazanfar and Gan C W are the King and Queen (not necessarily respectively  :Laughing: ), then what does that make you?

Congratulations, Tony. You're the 3rd winner. Folks, I'm officially declaring that the contest is over. Ghazanfar, Gan C W and Tony aka Gomer are the 3 winners. This is the correct answer:

From left to right - Java, Christmas, Erect, Taiwan, Singapore, Weeping.

I'll be sending Taiwan and Weeping Mosses to Ghazanfar and Tony. As for Radek, Mark and Tony (UK), they will be getting only Taiwan Moss. I'll try and send more but please understand that what I have is not very much so please don't be disappointed if there's only a few fronds in the envelope. I will appreciate it very much if the winners send me their mailing addresses through pm or email. 

I like to thank everyone for taking part in the contest. I hope you all had fun. For my next quiz, I will be putting up the microscope pictures  :Laughing:  Just kidding, of course. 

Not only was Ghazanfar Ghori the first person to correctly identify all the mosses but he also did it in his first attempt. To think that he doesn't have the Taiwan and Weeping Mosses in his tanks, that's an incredible effort. I would ask Ghazanfar to tell us his secret on how he did it. 

Over to you, Ghazanfar, please tell us.........

Loh K L

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## BeyondGomer

wow! That is awesome. I must say, that this was a VERY hard challenge. I had to go picture to picture and slowly do eliminations. My first guess, I was almost right and swapped Taiwan with xmas moss....was able to catch it the second time.

It is amazing that Ghazanfar did them all so "apparently easy". I hope he struggled like me  :Wink: 

Because of your generosity with this Loh, I'l try and have grow outs of each (xmas, erect, taiwan, and weeping). Should I have extra and you ahve another type of contest like this, I'll gladly ship a little to any winners that are in the states to alleviate you the hassle :Smile:

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## Barbarik

Loh, I really feel bad by the idea of you of giving your Taiwan moss to the winners of the 2nd game. Why not I pass you my Taiwan moss (and some postage fee  :Very Happy:  ) & you help me post to them?? I dont have confident of doing the correct packaginging method for the moss. I do not own any plastic bag sealer. Had tried to seal the plastic bag using lighter but unable to make it airtight!  :Crying:  Thus, I need an expert in plant export like you.  :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:  
For all the winners, congratulations!!! I hope that you had won by honesty. Anyone honest enough to admit otherwise??? :wink: 
Whatever it is, for our Singapore winners, please take note of the collection date & time I mentioned earlier.

Regards,
Yandy

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## PohSan

Hi Yandy,
Sealing up a bag is relatively easy and you don't need to be a expert to do that. After you have put the moss in the plastic bag, wipe the inside of the bag to remove the water droplet. Use Mr Loh's method to seal the bag. For me, seal one fourth of the bag and then pressed it with your finger. Repeat until you have complete sealing the bag opening. 

Hope that helps.

Okay, after the moss, can we go to killies egg???/fry competition? Ronnie will contribute 6 photos of the killies fry and we will guess what fish is it.  :Shocked:   :Shocked:   :Shocked:  
(sorry, just a joke to lighten up the atmosphere after a tense contest)

Regards,
Ong Poh San

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## stormhawk

Yandy, keep my share of the Taiwan moss. I'm not any good with mosses anyway and I've yet to set up my 2ft tank primarily for moss growing at this moment. Too busy with my Army work nowadays.. and too lazy to do anything too.. haha!  :Twisted Evil:  

Maybe in the future I'll buy a frond or two from you to give them a try. But what I need now is LOTS and LOTS of Java Moss.. my favourite moss.. heheheh. :wink: 

By the way, what's the moss that we can get for $5 a pack at PetMart? I bought one of these packs before and am growing the mosses on my mangrove root. They had alot of loose soil attached to the base of the mosses and yes, they still had capsules then before I started growing them submersed. Now they're really boggling me. I'm not sure what they are but they're showing two different growth forms. One is like a creeping growth and the other form is more like a mess of branching fronds all over the bloody place. Now that's one moss that has puzzled me for some time. Anyone knows what they are?  :Question:

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## Green Baron

Most likely Singapore Moss

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## timebomb

> Loh, I really feel bad by the idea of you of giving your Taiwan moss to the winners of the 2nd game.


Yandy,

You don't have to feel bad about anything. I have enough Taiwan Moss to spread a little of it to the overseas winners. As for the Weeping Moss, although what I have is even less than the Taiwan, only 2 persons are going to receive it. Gan has turned down the offer as he's resourceful enough to get the Weeping Moss through his own connections. You don't have to worry about the postage fees as the amount is negligible. It costs only Sing $1 to send Moss to any country in the world. 

It was a big blunder on my part not to realise that the filenames of the pictures will give away the answers. But this isn't a commercially-sponsored contest. No prizes were promised and I think all who took part in the game knew this from the start. You came along and offered to send Taiwan Mosses to the winners. It was an act of generousity and I'm sure the guys here understand this. If anyone had cheated, I'm quite sure his conscience will prevent him from turning up at your house to collect the free moss. 

To tell the truth, I got the Taiwan Moss for a very low price and the Weeping Moss for free. You, on the other hand, paid a high figure for your Taiwan Moss. If anyone's generous, it has to be you. I'm glad to know you as a friend, Yandy.

Loh K L

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## timebomb

> One is like a creeping growth and the other form is more like a mess of branching fronds all over the bloody place. Now that's one moss that has puzzled me for some time. Anyone knows what they are?


The creeping one could be the emersed form of Singapore Moss. The branching one could be Java Moss which quite often gets mixed up with other mosses as they are very common. I was at Teo's the other day and he was puzzled about the identities of some of his mosses too. I offered to take the mosses to the professor for identification but when Teo pulled them out from the tank, I was pretty sure they were Singapore Moss. He showed me another which was growing on driftwood. He thought it was Taiwan but I was sure it was Java. When I'm pretty sure, I won't bring the mosses to the professor. I don't think it would be fair to ask the professor to identify every single moss in the market, unless of course, it's possibly a new species. 

Jianyang, if you want to know what moss you have in your tanks, bring some over to me and I'll try and identify them. If you're looking for Java, I have plenty. My wife who helped me take the close-up pictures claims she's an expert now. If I don't know, maybe she will  :Laughing: .

By the way, guys, I've reinstated the close-up pictures in the second puzzle. You can now compare them with those in the 3rd puzzle to find out where you went wrong :smile:.

Loh K L

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## Green Baron

> My wife who helped me take the close-up pictures claims she's an expert now. If I don't know, maybe she will


She took those pictures ?!  :Shocked:  She is a good photographer !!
I am sure she also know more about Killifish than me :-)

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## Green Baron

I think we should all thank KL for starting this interesting thread and Yandy and KL for offering their precious mosses as prize !

I turned down KL's offer becasue I already have both mosses (though not much) and I know how little Taiwan and Weeping Moss KL has.

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## Slaigar

Thanks to Mr. Loh, those of us who participated have learned quite a lot on mosses! Maybe we should spread out and take on the roles moss missionaries to other countries/forums =). I am sure everyone appreciates the donations by both Mr. Loh and Yandy.

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## Barbarik

Wow! Just a simple contribution from me make my name suddenly "famous"  :Opps:  . I was just trying to make this wonderful site more lively. Just for the record, I did post on 4 other Singapore planted websites with subject "Want Taiwan or Weeping moss FOC???" & included a link to this site. Out of a sudden, lots of people send me PMs asking for trade, to sell them cheaply or even spare them free Taiwan moss. What suprised me was all of them are from Singpore where we can get the Taiwan moss easily  :Sad:  . If any of our oversea members are asking for the Taiwan moss, I would have understand, as the availability is close to none. In fact, I am hoping for our oversea members who love to have the Taiwan moss to PM me with their addresses as I still have the moss to spare to them (inspired by our great Mr Loh)  :Smile:  . I was 'dying' to have weeping moss before Gan came to my rescue. Let's hope that we can have a culture of sharing through this website  :Very Happy:  .
By the way, I still can't manage to make an airtight plastic bag (using lighter) containing moss for our overseas members. However, I found a easy way out: making use of the plastic bag sealer at our very own LFS, EcoCulture  :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:  .

Regards,
Yandy

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## timebomb

> In fact, I am hoping for our oversea members who love to have the Taiwan moss to PM me with their addresses as I still have the moss to spare to them (inspired by our great Mr Loh)


Yandy,

If, in any way, I had inspired you to share your mosses with fellow hobbyists, I'm truly glad. I've sent many mosses to several hundred people living in other countries, most of them were strangers. I've also given mosses to Singaporean hobbyists who asked me for them. Most offered to buy but I've never collected money for my plants. 

For people who live in other nations, I've always make it a point to ask them to make a contribution to the APD defense fund first before sending them the mosses. I don't ask the local hobbyists to do the same as I know many do not have paypal accounts and it would be difficult for them to contribute. I've never mentioned about the defense fund here in this forum but it's one of my pet causes. I've a banner at the bottom of my home page that leads directly to the defense fund web site. 

If you have a plant that is highly desirable to hobbyists who live in other countries and you don't mind giving it away, why not help the fund by asking them to make a contribution? I'm sure most wouldn't mind as it's a worthy cause. 

If you have not heard of the APD defense fund and don't know what it is all about, please click here.

Loh K L

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

> I like to thank everyone for taking part in the contest. I hope you all had fun. For my next quiz, I will be putting up the microscope pictures  Just kidding, of course. 
> 
> Not only was Ghazanfar Ghori the first person to correctly identify all the mosses but he also did it in his first attempt. To think that he doesn't have the Taiwan and Weeping Mosses in his tanks, that's an incredible effort. I would ask Ghazanfar to tell us his secret on how he did it. 
> 
> Over to you, Ghazanfar, please tell us.........
> 
> Loh K L


Microscopic pics?!  :Shocked:  

There was really nothing special about IDing the mosses. It was a process
of observation and elimination. Personally I have Xmas, Erect and Java
moss so those three were easy to ID. I did have some trouble trying
to figure out the differences between the a few of them though.

Let me first say that IDing these mosses visually like this is very
difficult. Growing conditions have a lot to play in what these
mosses look like to the naked eye. Anyway, here's how I 
thought this through when trying to distinguish between them.

Java moss:
Easiest to ID. Its got very little branching and a very uniform 
shaped 'leaves'. 

Taiwan moss:
Easy to ID in these pictures. Its the one that has the most 
'Christmas tree' like pattern (which is why I want it!) 
and it's also the most delecate one.

Willow moss:
The widest and darkest green of all the mosses in the picture.

Christmas moss:
It's got an 'irregular' growth pattern to it both in terms of the
fronds and the 'leaves'. I can't explain it - but if you keep it,
you can see what I'm talking about. 

Singapore moss:
This was very difficult for me to ID and I basically used a process
of elimination to get to this one. It's very similar to Xmass moss
but a little less 'irregular'. Very difficult to tell apart from Xmass
moss though.

Erect moss:
When compared side by side with the other mosses,
the growth pattern of the fronds is very distinctive. It's slightly
wider than Xmass moss and seems to have a little more
compact growth pattern.

Anyway - that's how I ID'ed them. It's not scientific at all.
I used a combination of personal experience, observation,
process of elimination and sheer luck!

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## timebomb

> Anyway - that's how I ID'ed them. It's not scientific at all.


It may not be very scientific but it may interest you to know, Ghazanfar, that the professor can't tell the mosses apart unless he looks at them under a microscope. I'm sure there's a lot you can teach him about mosses :wink:.

Loh K L

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## Ghazanfar Ghori

I got my mosses today - thanks Loh!
Along with that, I also got a huge mat of what I beleive is Singapore
moss from Sia Meng. Sweet! Thanks a ton guys!

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## BeyondGomer

Loh,

I got the mosses yesterday. ThankyouVERY much. You are always very generous with you mosses.

Right now I have erect, xmas, weeping, and taiwan moss. 3 of those are all because of your generosity. Again, thankyou.

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