# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk > Aquatic Moss Club >  Mosses and the men who love them - Part 4

## timebomb

Hi, folks,

I was with the professor at his lab this afternoon. Unfortunately, Gan CW couldn't be there as he's somewhere in Shanghai, China now. Kho was with us though and he had a great time examining the mosses through Professor Benito Tan's microscopes. 

Okay, here's my report:

First, let's talk about the Singapore Moss. The professor told me today that this moss is quite a wonderful plant, in the sense that it's very versatile. Their cells are highly variable so under different conditions, the Singapore Moss can show very different growth patterns, so different that it's sometimes quite hard to believe that they are one and the same moss. Here are some pics of the Singapore Moss in various forms:

*Nature Aquarium's display tank. Note how stringy the moss looks:*


*Joe's planted tank. Note how the fronds seem to point horizontally instead of hang down*


*My Moss Pole. Note how different it looks from the other 2 mosses above*


Well, here's the rub. The 3 mosses above are one and the same moss - the Singapore Moss. It's a species of _Vesicularia_. Amazing, isn't it? I will try and regurgitate what the Prof told me but please take note that what I say may not necessarily be correct as my memory isn't what it used to be  :Laughing: . The Prof said it's got something to do with genes. Somewhere along the road of evolution, the Singapore Moss could be a throw-off from the Christmas Moss. In other words, they could possibly share some similar genes. Under certain conditions, the Singapore Moss can throw back into its original genes and morph into a moss which looks very much like Christmas. It's a one way road though. The Christmas can't possibly morph into Singapore; it only happens the other way. The Prof said the Singapore Moss is like the character from the X-men, the one who can morph herself into many forms. Don't expect your Singapore Moss to turn into a sexy girl though; it doesn't work that way  :Laughing: 

When I was at my nature walk the other day, I took a patch of moss from the bark of a tree. The prof said it's Singapore Moss. Here's the pic:


Can you see, within the patch, that there's a frond that looks somewhat like the Christmas Moss? So you see, even in its natural habitat, the Singapore Moss appears in more than one form.

Okay, that's all for the Singapore Moss. Now for some new mosses.

System Engineering and Control, the fish shop along Bendemeer Road that sells Bioplast products gave me a moss the other day. They call it Mini-Christmas. It's very beautiful. The fronds look like Christmas except that they are much smaller. Here's a pic:



The professor said it's a species of _Taxiphyllum_ but it isn't the same as Taiwan or Java Moss. He couldn't be sure of the species though as we don't know where the moss is orginally from. 

Mermaid World, the fish shop in Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 that specialises in many mosses gave me a moss which came with capsules. Melvin Lim, the owner said the moss can be found locally. Here's a pic:



The Prof said it's a species of _Taxiphyllum_ but not the same as Mini-Christmas, Java or Taiwan. The Prof was quite amazed that the moss can be found locally as he said that as far as he know, there's only one species of _Taxiphyllum_ that is native to Singapore, a moss called _Taxiphyllum taxirameun_. The _T. taxirameun_ is not an aquatic moss though, too bad  :Crying: . The Prof will be examining the moss in greater detail and he'll let me know what species it is as soon as it's confirmed that it is local.

That's all for my report, folks. Watch this space for further news on mosses  :Laughing: 

Loh K L

<<-- Part III .... Part V-->

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## Green Baron

Amazing ! All there are Singapore Moss and they look so different !

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## TyroneGenade

Hi Loh

Real interesting account.

Back in SA we had a multi-form moss we used to call Java Moss. From what you describe combined with the pics it looks much more like Singapore Moss. 

A real interesting thread!

Thanks for sharing!

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## PeterGwee

Loh, do you have any idea of the water temperature of that tank in NA? The stringy look blends in so well with the wood....fantastic!

Regards
Peter Gwee :wink:

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## stormhawk

KL, did the Prof. say how widespread the Singapore moss is? It seems to be that it is abundant in all corners of the island.

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## shortman

> KL, did the Prof. say how widespread the Singapore moss is? It seems to be that it is abundant in all corners of the island.


The miltary restricted area have the largest population as mention in the study by prof Tan, I PM you the document. The area 'D' and 'E' should have more I suspect.

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## hwchoy

we saw a lot of them in the Catchment and Bk Timah Reserves.

Area D and E do not have a lot of secondary forests, they are primarily bushland (CB Leaves) and rubber plantations. The area used to be farmland until most were dammed for the reservoirs.

You should find more moss in the old forested areas. Just yesterday I saw some Singapore moss showing a triangular form on the moister area of the rocks or wood they were growing on, in the Catchment Reserve.

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## timebomb

> Loh, do you have any idea of the water temperature of that tank in NA? The stringy look blends in so well with the wood....fantastic!


Peter, 

Chan, the owner of Nature Aquarium is quite an accomplished aquatic gardener. His tanks are lovely. I don't know what's the temp in his display tank but I believe it's rigged up to a chiller. 




> KL, did the Prof. say how widespread the Singapore moss is? It seems to be that it is abundant in all corners of the island.


Oh yes, it's everywhere, Jianyang. I saw many on the sides of scupper drains and on the barks of trees in Sembawang Estate. The older housing estates are where you can find plenty of Singapore Moss. They're been there all the time but we weren't looking close enough previously.

Loh K L

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## hwchoy

> Oh yes, it's everywhere, Jianyang. I saw many on the sides of scupper drains and on the barks of trees in Sembawang Estate. The older housing estates are where you can find plenty of Singapore Moss. They're been there all the time but we weren't looking close enough previously.
> 
> Loh K L


and here's the man we have to thank for that serendipitous act of picking a bunch of moss out of a stream and putting them in his tank!

Ben Yau _aka_ subzero  :Smile:

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## hwchoy

oh what happened to that _Fissidens_ spp. found by Ben, is it unrecorded or undescribed?

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## PeterGwee

> Peter, 
> 
> Chan, the owner of Nature Aquarium is quite an accomplished aquatic gardener. His tanks are lovely. I don't know what's the temp in his display tank but I believe it's rigged up to a chiller.


Thanks Loh for the info but the answer is no as I found out on my visit to NA for CO2 topup. Chan told me he only uses a fan for it. Geeee....perharps it was the cold weather today and the temperature shows 26 degrees celsius! The smaller tank with moss also is of a much higher temperature though at 28 degrees.

Regards
Peter Gwee :wink:

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## timebomb

> oh what happened to that _Fissidens_ spp. found by Ben, is it unrecorded or undescribed?


Choy, I'm afraid I forgot to ask the professor about the _Fissidens_ that Ben found. Ben deserves a lot of credit for being among the first to experiment with mosses found locally. We haven't heard from him for a while. I hope everything's ok with him and his family. 




> Geeee....perhaps it was the cold weather today and the temperature shows 26 degrees celsius! The smaller tank with moss also is of a much higher temperature though at 28 degrees.


Peter, it's been raining since this morning. Considering that the thermometer in my living room reads 27.0 C, 26 C for a tank with a fan blowing non-stop is not a big deal :smile:. What's interesting about Chan's display tanks is that the moss in the smaller one was taken from the bigger tank. But the moss shows different growth patterns. It's Singapore Moss, a Moss with many faces  :Laughing: .

Loh K L

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## hwchoy

> Originally Posted by hwchoy
> 
> oh what happened to that _Fissidens_ spp. found by Ben, is it unrecorded or undescribed?
> 
> 
> Choy, I'm afraid I forgot to ask the professor about the _Fissidens_ that Ben found. Ben deserves a lot of credit for being among the first to experiment with mosses found locally. We haven't heard from him for a while. I hope everything's ok with him and his family. 
> 
> Loh K L


Ben is alive and well  :Laughing:   :Laughing:   :Laughing:  

We went on an outing to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve just last Saturday (you can see the pictures here) and in fact we came across the Singapore moss growing on damp rocks and wood exhibiting a mix of the emersed and the "triangular" forms.

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## stormydax

Hi guys,
iI have a 3ft tank and if i throw in a big root with moss tied on it, will it just grow and grow?Of course, I provide it with fan but no co2 though. 

thanks

yours sincerely,
Storm

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## PeterGwee

Storm, it would be better if you start a new topic by itself instead of posting it here. You would probably get a much better response.

The answer is yes...just don't blast it with loads of light. More light energy means more demand for CO2 and nutrients. For your info, moss does not use bicarbonate as an alternative source for carbon and only uses CO2. Hence, you are limited in growth rate unless you provide it with CO2 in good amount (30ppm).

Regards
Peter Gwee :wink:

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## stormydax

Hi Peter,
Thanks. Did not wish to jam up the forum.Will post a new topic next time round.

thanks

yours sincerely,
storm(jeff)

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## timebomb

Hi, folks,

Thought you all may like to see how the Mini-Christmas Moss looks like. The picture is taken from the display tank belonging to the shop known as "System Engineering & Control", the one that specialises in Bioplast products. It isn't a very good pic as my hands weren't quite steady but I think you can see how beautiful the moss is.



A while back, I gave a few strands of the _Fissidens_ Moss that Ben found to the same fish shop. They're good with plants and the _Fissidens_ is now growing very well in their tanks. Here's the pic:



Loh K L

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## rthien

Kwek Leong,

Very nice moss indeed at "System Control & Engineering". I wonder how you and the shop snapped out of this "browning moss" phenomenon some 2-3 months ago.

I'm still affected by this myself and I'm sad to report that the beautiful Erect moss you gave me have almost disintegrated entirely! Java moss which used to grow like weed in my tank grows extremely slow. My Narrow Leaf Java Ferns are growing very well in my tank in my tank though.

Also, my chiller have always been maintaining a 24C temperature. CO2 is still abundant and dosing is always the same.

Anyway, I'm so busy preparing for the arrival of my 2nd child that I have little time to make any considerable effort to resolve this problem. Perhaps I'm just not good/lucky with moss  :Crying:  

Cheers,

Roger

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## Piscesgirl

Beautiful moss! I wonder if the browning may be algae? low co2? I have some browning of my moss in my 55 gallon and they went through an episode of low/no co2 (tank emptied, and some other reasons), and subsequent algae outbreak. They are trying now to recover. 

I wonder because my tanks are at 77/78 degrees Fahrenheit so I'm not sure that the temp is the issue for the browning?

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## timebomb

> Very nice moss indeed at "System Control & Engineering". I wonder how you and the shop snapped out of this "browning moss" phenomenon some 2-3 months ago.


Roger, one way to overcome the "browning moss" phenomenon is to cut away all the brown parts and re-start again with the green ones. But it's no guarantee the green ones won't turn brown again.

When I was with the professor, I offered the theory that the Erect Moss turns brown because it isn't truly an aquatic moss, probably not even semi-aquatic. The prof had told me many times in the past that quite a few of the mosses we grow in our tanks are not aquatic in nature. He said they can survive underwater for a while but will eventually die because once underwater, their life cycles change. He wasn't sure if the Erect is one such moss but he said my theory could be correct.

Not everyone is reporting their Erect Mosses are turning brown though. But almost everyone who got them from me are seeing this phenomenon. 
I distributed quite a fair bit of Erect Moss around so I can safely say many of the mosses in hobbyists' tanks came from mine. I don't know if the Erect in Sam Yick's is turning brown too. Anyone visited their shop at Eastpoint recently?

Loh K L

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## stormhawk

KL, the Erect Moss you gave me quite some time ago is still surviving and multiplying. It went through a browning stage because I left it in a small plastic container unattended for several weeks.  :Opps:  

Luckily for me I had a plastic breeder trap lying around so I placed the browning clump into it and placed the trap directly beneath the spray of my rainbar. Now its a healthy green clump and slowly overgrowing its compartment.  :Laughing:

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## Ryan M

The erect moss you gave me shows absolutly no signs of browning and has grown wild. The Singapore moss has grown in the same "stringy" pattern as in the NA tank but it is grown in the chilly 21 degree tank with low K. Dunno if this helps anyone.

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## rthien

Kwek Leong et al,

Thank you for all your suggestions. I'll give it a shot! Hopefully I can restore my erect moss to its former glory! If not, I hope I can trade my abundant narrow leaf java ferns for some healthy thriving mosses of any kind.

Cheers,

Roger

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## shortman

> I don't know if the Erect in Sam Yick's is turning brown too. Anyone visited their shop at Eastpoint recently?


Just visited the shop yesterday and the erect moss are still doing good.




> Hopefully I can restore my erect moss to its former glory!


Roger, 

Which moss you need, let me know I give you. :-)
Singapore, Java or Erect?

Yes. your java fern is very good so far most of us get it from you are still doing fine.

BTW, you still want Aus Orange/Gold(male/female)?

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## imported_subzero

Hi Kwek Leong,

I have not been active here as i was busy with work. I saw the moss in System Engineering & Control and wondering what it was. So glad that i have pass the piece of moss rock to you and now it look absolutely fantastic, i doubt it will do well in my tank.


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