# Low growing tropical moss?



## jash3 (Aug 17, 2020)

I've gotten moss from NEHERP (their live moss and slurry) and Josh's frogs (live sheet moss), but all of them grow very vertically and aren't spreading nicely or growing onto my driftwood. Are there specific species you all recommend that are low growing and stick better to driftwood? Any vendors you recommend?

Thanks for the help!


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## SpoopisDarts (Apr 12, 2021)

jash3 said:


> I've gotten moss from NEHERP (their live moss and slurry) and Josh's frogs (live sheet moss), but all of them grow very vertically and aren't spreading nicely or growing onto my driftwood. Are there specific species you all recommend that are low growing and stick better to driftwood? Any vendors you recommend?
> 
> Thanks for the help!



Moss can look leggy if your light is not bright enough, what's your lighting? Your routine?


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## jgragg (Nov 23, 2009)

jash3 said:


> I've gotten moss from NEHERP (their live moss and slurry) and Josh's frogs (live sheet moss), but all of them grow very vertically and aren't spreading nicely or growing onto my driftwood. Are there specific species you all recommend that are low growing and stick better to driftwood? Any vendors you recommend?
> 
> Thanks for the help!


This reply is probably going to be a little outside the norms of the group here, but I'm not shy and my approach works for me. YMMV. Anyway, here goes:

1) Do you really need to know the identity of what moss you've got in the viv? 
Having a name will help you search for vendors. But - if you find someone claiming to be selling it, is that really what they are selling? Could you even tell? (Moss taxonomy is pretty challenging, if you know a moss taxonomist then you know he/she lives with a hand lens on a lanyard around their neck.) And if you discovered their mistake (or their lie...) would it matter - or perhaps more pointedly, what could & what would you do about it?

2) If you aren't hung up on identity, but really just want a low-growing tropical moss, you DO NOT need to find a vendor.
I've bought & used Dusk (comes dry) and NEHERP (comes wet) moss slurries. I have also bought various sheet & pillow mosses. All have worked, to varying degrees of my satisfaction. I have no idea what mosses and ferns came in the mix, and which of those survived and thrived. Some of the "winners" have not really been what I wanted. In all candor my preferred go-to technique for getting moss I like into my vivs is to collect my own. I live in a cold desert - the wild local mosses are hopelessly inappropriate for tropical vivaria use. However, there are various situations I can collect from. Trips out of town, to e.g. visit family in the SE USA have yielded some good mosses and ferns. Local greenhouse-based nurseries (not ones used for tomatoes and other outdoor annuals, but the ones for houseplants) offer some very successful mosses. They are "weeds" on the benches and on the ground under the benches. Finally, greenhouse-grown tropical container stock also often come with "hitchhiker" mosses. More weeds, really. You buy them when you buy the plants. Or, you can ask the nursery if you can just go home with some of their weeds. I have done this multiple times, and never been turned down. Not once. (It helps to actually buy something. Like a viv plant or three.)

People will no doubt be thinking about biosecurity. If you like, treat the mosses just like any other plant or decor you're introducing to the viv. Also, you can transfer clumps of moss or you can make your own slurries - the latter route gives you some more biosecurity options.

Anyway - like i said, this could be a little out-of bounds for many folks here. I keep snakes, not frogs, so my charges are much more robust than yours/theirs. I'm not taking crazy risks with their well-being, I manage them pretty well I think and have had no problems yet. Consider this info, and try to get something out of it. Self-awareness, if nothing else.

good luck!


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## Frogmanjared (Jul 17, 2020)

I’ve used Christmas moss as accents around my vivs. It has stayed low, but I’m not trying to cover large areas. It has been a slow grower.


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## Schledog (Apr 28, 2020)

I have had good success looking for moss in plant stores. Usually if there's moss growing in a big greenhouse at a garden center it's good to use in a viv as long as you qt it and clean it and all. I've also seen a lot of moss at botanical gardens and although I've never taken any I don't really see the harm in taking a quarter-sized piece or something. Ive gotten moss from botanical gardens but that was because it was growing on other stuff that was given to me. That being said it has done very well.


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