Growing moss?

[Kyle Barker]

I have seen tons of planted cages with awsoem looking mosses. However, the only ones i can get to grow in my tanks are those club mosses, and other large moss species. I have a type of moss that grows outside here and its PERFECT. Its small, dense and dark green. I have tried sooo many different thing to get it to grow. I have tried the following: collect form dry, wet, sunny, shady, planted in dry, wet, sunny, shady, dirt, rock, wood, in water, partly in water and a combination of all of those. How do i get it to grow inside? I have even tried shaking the spores onto the soil, but no work. any help would be great and ill get some pics of this moss.
Thanks,

kyle

P.s Im not interested in any mosses that grow big (like sphag, club or any that grows higher that 1/2")

[Dilshad]

Hey;

I agree that mosses look awesome in a tank, but I don't usually use them because most of the microhabitats I try to suggest in my vivs, don't have mosses present; they're several metres off the ground. That said, here are a few things to consider:

Mosses like bright but diffuse light. The diffuse part is especially hard to replicate. One may think that "bright" isn't the term to use for shade loving plants, but most artificial light sources are much dimmer than the interior of a temperate forest, where the moss we're discussing comes from, I believe. A point source tends to distort their growth too...that's why diffuse light works better.

Anyway, what kind of water do you use? Mosses tend to be particularly sensitive to sodium, I think...tap water tends to distort and eventually kill moss, I've found. Distilled works better.

You could try the old moss slurry trick: put the moss and some buttermilk in a blender, and "paint" the resulting glop on to surfaces where you want it to grow. Keep ambient humidity high and the spores in the mixture will germinate. I've never tried it but I'm told it works.

I don't know that much about it, since I abandoned moss use in my own tanks, but there is a book out there called "The Moss Garden" or something similar...maybe "The Moss Gardener" ... that should teach you a lot.

About the moisture requirements...the few times I've maintained good looking moss, it was with high ambient humidity in the tank, but not a lot of actual "wetness"...drowned moss doesn't look so great.

[Kyle Barker]

Thank you, that really did help a lot. I have used tap water with the chlorine taken out, and rainwater. Im definatly going to try that slurry thing, but i setup a test tank in case it doesnt work.
Thanks again,
Kyle