# What is a hardy live moss for ground cover?



## supe22 (May 14, 2007)

I have been using rehydrated dead moss for years and would like to give live moss a try. I was hoping someone could reccommend a good one to start with and the best place to buy from. The terrariums I want to use it in have a moist supstrate but not extremely high humidity. They are tall and well ventilated but receive a misting from my misting system 3 times per day. The bottom of the cage remains moist eventhough the humidty is more moderate higher in the cage where the frogs spend much of the time. A reading closer to the substrate would likely show higher humidity near the bottom. I would appreciate any suggestions as I feel that the live moss would be a better way to go for the health of the terrarium and its inhabitants if possible. I am not looking for an exotic look as much as a species that will grow relatively easily and quickly in a tank that is not extremely humid. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond.


----------



## slipperheads (Oct 17, 2007)

I use T-rex pillow/carpet/frog moss in my vivs; they like it humid not soaking and good light. Some of it has actaully grown! (Thanks to aaron - he got me into it)


----------



## AaronAcker (Aug 15, 2007)

yep, has worked well for me, as long as it has some drainage seems to do great.


----------



## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I think the biggest key besides air movement and humidty, would be lighting... probably your only issue. Moss tends to like a good amount of light in tanks.

Best live moss to try would either be out of someone's terrarium/grow tank (I got little tid bits from a couple local froggers to start in my tanks and given time they do very well since they were grown in basically the same conditions), or the true tropical moss from black jungle (it's a pretty penny but grows well and fast - don't know of other suppliers of it tho). Other mosses available online tend to be temperate mosses than can be very hit or miss on if they survive or rot out, and some just survive rather than spread 

I also have a lot of sphagnum moss living in many of my tanks... more by accident when dried moss came back to life. It's ideal for it to either be dried and coming back to life rather than live sphagnum, because live sphagnum is usually grown full sun and does adapt well to the lower light tanks unless you happen to get it in its dormant stage (which I don't think is when they are usually harvested because they don't grow back quickly like they do during the warmer seasons).


----------



## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

the only moss ive had actually grow, is fern moss, i use it in all of my tanks, it usually breaks down slightly from when i originally put it in the tank, but liverwort takes over and spreads throughout on everything and it look really cool i can post some pics soon of the liverwort and fern moss in the same tank, 
i just recently added more land to the viv and minimized the pond area so i just put some fresh fern moss over top of the new land and u can see the difference, plus i get the fern moss off ebay for 5 dollars for 4 lbs of it


----------



## supe22 (May 14, 2007)

Thanks alot for all the info and help. Does the pillow moss spread to cover the bottom of the cage? I have heard mixed reviews about that one. I guess my biggest concern was that I am wanting to use some sort of live moss species with my young tree frogs and thought that I needed an extremely humid tank like you would have for darts in order to get the moss to grow. If a moist substrate is sufficient, I don't think I should have a problem. I have pretty good lighting on all my cages.
On the fern moss, can you tell me the name of that supplier so that I can take a look at it? Also, I would really like to see that photo of the liverwort and fern together when you get it. Thanks alot.


----------



## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

i get the fern moss off ebay, $5.00, plus shipping, there is a box on ebay RIGHT NOW i thin this person has many boxes, for ive seen it on there 3 weeks in a row, just type in fern moss and it should come up
here is the liverwort









liverwort on some of the wood in the tank








close up








more wood








new moss in the bottom left corner, liverwort/oldmoss in the middle-upper area








fern moss


----------



## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

do you mean This Stuff?

the guy lives in MA, and since he said its harvested from a pesticide free area, it can probably be assumed that its from his back yard or a local park and is thus a temperate moss that will eventually die in a tropical environment (temperate mosses need a cold period so they can go dormant for a few months). plus could introduce snails/slugs/etc into the viv.


----------



## RedEyeTroyFrog (Jan 25, 2008)

yep thats the stuff, well ive used that same fern moss for years now, and clearly you can see in the pics that the fern moss has died off but liverwort has taken over and looks pretty cool IMO, actually cooler than the moss. Its been in my tank for 2 years now and grows on everything. and yeah sometimes i do see slugs in the tank but i they dont seem to do much harm, when i do see them i take em out and. I have heard that if you take the frogs out of the tank, and put a small bowl of beer in the tank, the slugs are attracted to it and they drown. Anyways the fern moss that i bought 2 years ago was from moss acres and looked exaclty how the one i got from ebay looks. The moss acres 5 lb box set me back $70.00, so im willing to see how the ebay stuff does for $5.00, plus 10 for shipping. Its been in the tanks for almost 3 weeks now and it seems to be doing great. Green and healthy looking.... so far so good


----------



## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Supe22, I would stay away from the pillow moss. As nice as it looks, it's actually one of the harder mosses to grow in a rainforest tank... mainly because the stuff for sale is primarily temperate collected species. A "moist substrate" in a humidity saturated tank (80%+) is a recipe for rot with these species typically. They like a moist substrate, but like drier air with decent movement, not what you find in most rainforest tanks. "Moist" substrate in a rainforest tank tends to translate into soggy when combined with the high humidity. Since the moss is usually tossed into the tank and not acclimated, it rots quickly in most cases. In the cases it does survive, it doesn't grow.

If you can give us an idea of the set up for your treefrogs, we can probably recomend mosses. I know I have sphagnum moss coming back to life in the majority of my Tropical Treefrog tanks :roll: It's also the moss that handles the TF traffic the best!


----------



## memnoch1970 (Apr 17, 2007)

i saw you were looking for some moss ground cover check this out great prices. http://home.att.net/~a.j.calisi/moss.html


----------



## holidayhanson (Apr 25, 2007)

Riccia and Java moss are both aquatic plants which can grow terresterially on moist substrate. They grow fast and cover everything quite well. See some of my more recent tank shots for examples through the link below.

The entire ground floor is blanketed in 9 months.


----------



## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

There is only one truely aquatic moss (can't remember the particular one) and the other "aquatic" mosses are actually just very adaptable semi-aquatics that can grow submersed or emersed. Java is the moss common, and riccia is a popular liverwort alternative - but riccia seems to like higher light.


----------



## JoshH (Feb 13, 2008)

Last time I went to the amphibian shows, someone had a really nice type of Hawaiian moss. It did well in my tanks for quite some time. I never had luck with the pillow mosses, but most any tropical moss grows well. Is it just me, or does anyone else have problems with fern moss.


----------



## topherlove (Jul 14, 2006)

yea i got some of that Hawaiian moss at a show last month i'm giving it a whirl. Is it doing really well for you? what kind of light are you using?


----------

