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Java Moss vs Algae




In reply to Russell, 

>    You should of heard some of mine on other lists. ;)    First time so take it
>easy on me. :)

I guess everyone asks stupid questions some times.  I think on this list the only
time you might get flamed for is if you are rude or mean.  I have never been on
another list, so I don't know how bad "flames" get, but I haven't seen anything too
bad on this list.  I think the listmom rules with an iron fist of disconnecting doom.

>    I can attest to this. It's one of the hardest plants to kill I've seen. This
> past autumn I had some out on the porch in a basin. It froze for a week, about
> 1/4" of ice on the top. I brought it inside and threw it in the 20 long. I have
> not, to date, added any moss from the 55 and I'm able to harvest every month and
> take it to the LFS. I also just shipped some from CT to a lady in FL. Overnight
> and it stayed in her local post office for two days. Last report was the stuff
> was growing as good as ever.

I know that the ball of it that I have is huge!  Any idea where it is from?  It may
be a plant from a temperate zone, so it is used to cold.  If it grows on rocks, then
when the winter comes, the rivers are usually lower and the rock could be encased in
ice or maybe even out of the water.  That would explain how it could take being
frozen/really cold.  I wonder if it would come back after being dried? 

Let's hope the plant cruelty monitors do not catch us doing horrid experiments with
our plants, to test the limits they can survive under!  I can see it now...bubbling
flasks, lighting ball from Radio Shack, hair spiked up, small tufts of java moss
stretched out on a drying rack...Oh yes, my pretty, think you could take over my
tanks, when I wasn't looking <mad cackle>.  

On a bit of a more serious note, now that I have little tufts of java moss thriving
in odd spaces between my plants, is there any way to get rid of them?  I have tried
physically pulling them out, but I guess I miss a fiber and it just keeps growing. 
The algae eaters are being their polite selves and not touching it, because it isn't
algae.  I guess the moral of the story would be to keep your java moss in a ball,
contained, if you don't want it spreading everywhere.  It just looked good blowing in
the output of the powerhead...kind of like a piece of driftwood in a river with moss
growing on it...

>    This could very well be Java Moss, maybe covered in algae. Not seeing a
> picture makes it hard to I.D.

I am currently trying to get a web site up, with pictures and an on-line version of
my log, but <sigh> I guess I have been devoting that time to the aquarium and not to
sharing it with others.

>>   The other variety is really soft, silky and long and also comes up in a clump
>>   when you pull on it, but stays together better than the other stuff.

> I assume this is hair algae by the description.

The soft stuff does not seem to attach to anything, and I thought that hair algae
attaches to things, like plants or driftwood.  It is the coarser stuff that seems to
attach.  Java moss also is supposed to attach to stuff, so I think I am going to have
to pull out the books and the plant and really compare.  The problem is that I
haven't seen a picture that has enough detail (like a magnification of the fiber), so
it just looks like a big ball of green fluff.

>     Might I suggest the "Flying fox", sorry don't have my book at work to look
> up a proper name. In each of my 55's I have 2 SAE's, 3 Otto's, and 2 Flying
> Fox's. Seems to work for everything but the hard little dots on the glass.

I thought that the flying fox was nasty to its own kind and you could only keep one
of them in a tank?

Jennifer Glover
Waldorf, MD, USA