Christmas Moss (Vesicularia montagnei)

by **guppyguy** Fri May 09, 2014 3:56 pm

Christmas moss has been gaining in popularity. Base on my knowledge it was made well known by the aquarium hobby in Singapore. There are a few reasons that it is becoming so popular, and many are taking it as a better alternative to the well-known Java moss:
1. It forms a very neat moss wall (if it is cultivated with a proper setup Moss wire mesh), with the moss forming a Christmas-tree-like shape
2. Christmas moss grows slower, so lesser maintenance effort is required. For java moss, if you let it grow freely for 3 to 4 weeks in your tank, probably your tank will become wild for your sights. As for Christmas moss, it could stay nice and neat for at least 7-8 weeks. That’s half the effort to maintain.

Common Name: Christmas Moss, Xmas Moss Scientific Name: Vesicularia montagnei Temperature: 70-80 degrees pH: 5.0-7.5 Light: Low (1.5WPG) to High (3WPG+) Growth: Slow Difficulty: Beginner
Christmas moss could grow beautifully in the aquarium tank with very high lighting, and it could also grow very well in the darkest corner. It is not too demanding over the lighting or pH, but in order for it to grow very well, it prefers to be to be kept in neutral to soft water. I love this moss. I have grow it before and just recently got my hands on it again. I highly recommend it you want a beautiful moss with a different look. Cool

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Christmas Moss (Vesicularia montagnei) Dscf0110

by **CAAIndie** Fri May 09, 2014 4:08 pm

This is exactly the moss that I need to get my hands on. My moss wall did not do well with my strange "singapore" moss. It grew far too irregularly. I had attempted it with a plastic quilting (?) mesh, which may still work, but I'm considering starting from scratch again.

by l_l_l Fri May 09, 2014 4:24 pm

I really like the look of JAVA moss for some reasons.
I'm more of a "wild" and keep things natural guy.
Java moss fits the picture for me.
For making a nice tidy thing, JAVA moss is not good at all. In fact, java moss is quite like herpes, once you have it in your tank, you wont get rid of it.

Christmas moss can take quite a while to establish itself properly, but is quite worth the wait.
It is beautiful lush and very tamable.
I think both of them have their advantage, but I still really love my java moss.
Wink

P.S: I also have christmas moss.

by **guppyguy** Fri May 09, 2014 5:07 pm

CanadaquariaAdmin wrote:This is exactly the moss that I need to get my hands on. My moss wall did not do well with my strange "singapore" moss. It grew far too irregularly. I had attempted it with a plastic quilting (?) mesh, which may still work, but I'm considering starting from scratch again.

I am actually doing a experiment right now using java moss in the plastic canvas but instead of using it as a wall I am it placed as a tank divider when the moss will grow out both sides. I just set this up days ago and hope it turns out well. But I also set up a java moss wall too in the same tank. Will be a lot of moss in there should really be interesting. Smile

Now I have not tried Christmas moss in a wall yet but I am told it is one the best choices. If you want to know where to get some send me a PM.

by **guppyguy** Fri May 09, 2014 5:12 pm

l_l_l wrote:I really like the look of JAVA moss for some reasons.
I'm more of a "wild" and keep things natural guy.
Java moss fits the picture for me.
For making a nice tidy thing, JAVA moss is not good at all. In fact, java moss is quite like herpes, once you have it in your tank, you wont get rid of it.

Christmas moss can take quite a while to establish itself properly, but is quite worth the wait.
It is beautiful lush and very tamable.
I think both of them have their advantage, but I still really love my java moss.

P.S: I also have christmas moss.

Well honestly I am big fan of many mosses. I love both java moss and Christmas, flame moss and Taiwan moss. Each has it own beauty and uses. Christmas is growing in popularity for it has some great uses and is very beautiful as you can see in the pic above with its lush light green colors. But I use java moss in many of my tank and recently started using flame moss too I cant enough of the mossy look in a tank. lol

by JayB Sat May 10, 2014 12:39 pm

I love mosses and think a moss wall tank divider would be really cool guppyguy. I'm eager to see how this works out for you.

by **guppyguy** Sat May 10, 2014 1:35 pm

JayB wrote:I love mosses and think a moss wall tank divider would be really cool guppyguy. I'm eager to see how this works out for you.

I do hope it works out well. I can see little bits here and there of java moss starting to poke threw.

by nyleveiam Sat May 10, 2014 1:44 pm

I feel like a dummy but my java moss fails miserably. In fact, I just ripped it all out of my tanks and replaced it with shortly trimmed sprigs of cabomba.
My java moss only seems to grow hair algae...it ends up in strange places that I don't put it, and collects up gravel, then floats off somewhere else and dumps the gravel. I started out with it nicely tied to my driftwood which didn't last long.
Maybe I will try Christmas moss if it is better behaved.

by l_l_l Sat May 10, 2014 2:28 pm

I really like your idea of diving your tank with a moss wall.
Makes it all more natural!
One day, I'd like to have a go at bonsai moss trees..

by **guppyguy** Sat May 10, 2014 4:45 pm

l_l_l wrote:I really like your idea of diving your tank with a moss wall.
Makes it all more natural!
One day, I'd like to have a go at bonsai moss trees..

Thank you and bonsai moss trees would be really cool.