# java moss or thuidium delicatum



## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

which should i use to cover a cocohut with, java moss or thuidium delicatum??? i can't decide both look great...


----------



## flyingSquirrel (Aug 22, 2011)

Since nobody else will respond, I will do my best. 
I know 0 about Thuidium. Java moss works great for a lot of things, if you give it a lot of water/moisture/humidity. If it was grown submersed, it will take a couple weeks to adjust to emersed culture.
Besides all that, there are probably a lot of other mosses that would work well too.


----------



## Shinosuke (Aug 10, 2011)

I'm not familiar with thuidium delicatum but I do know java moss and it would work alright if you keep it constantly moist with plenty of light. Another option is riccia, you can see it growing in a happy little bright green mat on top of my coco hut here. It took a month or two to switch from submerged growth (in my aquarium) to the emersed growth in this pic. It needed to stay wet with plenty of light, similar to java moss. You can see some java moss growing directly to the right of the coco hut, not quite as cheery imho.


----------



## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

where would i get some riccia?? i don't really wanna pay for shipping so does petco carry it?


----------



## Shinosuke (Aug 10, 2011)

It's pretty common in the aquarium hobby, usually sold as a floating plant that looks nothing like what it does when grown emersed. I'm not sure if any of the big chains sell it (good chance that they do, call and ask) but if you have a local aquarium society I'm sure SOMEONE in there has a tank full of it that they'd love to thin out.


----------



## Azriel (Jun 15, 2011)

You can get riccia from plantedaquariumscentral.com.


----------



## ICS523 (Mar 10, 2012)

cool local fish shops usually carry lots of stuff


----------



## dendrothusiast (Sep 16, 2010)

ICS523 said:


> cool local fish shops usually carry lots of stuff


agreed. If you do buy some online usually you can find aquarists on the aquarium forums sell it cheap and shipping is usually discouraging but you usually get your money's worth and a little more.

try aquabid.com - I've gotten plenty of cool things off of there if you decide on going the online route.


----------



## Rusty_Shackleford (Sep 2, 2010)

I don't know anything about thuidium delicatum, but here is one of my coco huts covered in java moss. I think it looks okay.


----------



## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

I've looked into thuidium delicatum, and from what I've read it's a temperate moss that usually has a dormancy period during the winter. I've never used it personally, but I've read on that boards that some temperate mosses do very well in tropical tanks for a few months, and then start to go bad for no reason... (the idea being that they die from the lack of dormancy).


----------



## MeiKVR6 (Sep 16, 2008)

hypostatic said:


> I've looked into thuidium delicatum, and from what I've read it's a temperate moss that usually has a dormancy period during the winter. I've never used it personally, but I've read on that boards that some temperate mosses do very well in tropical tanks for a few months, and then start to go bad for no reason... (the idea being that they die from the lack of dormancy).


Thuidium delicatulum after ~6 Months


















2+ Years









Now it's been well over 3 years and it's still going strong...  I'm sure it _can_ do well with a dormancy period, but in my experience it doesn't _need_ one to thrive. Java & Riccia are excellent choices as well, though. I love Riccia around water features!


----------



## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Ah, well there's the answer then haha


----------

