Java moss

Care at a glance

Overview

Tie or glue a thin layer onto wood, rock or a mesh and let it attach over a few weeks, then trim it flat to keep a tidy carpet or cushion. It needs no substrate, no CO2 and only low light, though brighter light makes it branch more compactly while dim light gives thin straggly shoots. The main pitfall is letting it grow into a thick clump, since the inner layers get starved of light and flow, trap debris and brown out, so thin it regularly and keep water moving through it.

In the wild

Java moss is native to Southeast Asia, where it grows on rocks, riverbanks, tree trunks and submerged wood in streams and along the edges of slow rivers. It grows both submersed underwater and emersed on damp surfaces above the waterline, which is part of why it tolerates such a wide range of conditions. In the wild it forms dense mats over hard surfaces rather than rooting into soil.

Good to know

Taxiphyllum barbieri is a true moss in the family Hypnaceae and has no real roots, anchoring instead with thread-like rhizoids. For decades it was sold under the name Vesicularia dubyana, which is actually a different species, so most plants traded as that name are really T. barbieri. It reproduces from spores in nature but in the tank it simply spreads by fragmentation, with any broken piece continuing to grow.

Did you know

Java moss is a favorite spawning surface for egg-scattering fish and shrimp because the tangled threads catch and hide the eggs, and shrimp graze the biofilm and microfauna that collect in it.

Related plants

• 

  Taiwan moss

  Taxiphyllum alternans

  Low lightEpiphyte3.9 in (10 cm)
• Flame moss

  Taxiphyllum sp. 'Flame'

  Low lightEpiphyte3.1 in (8 cm)
• Peacock moss

  Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock'

  Low lightEpiphyte2 in (5 cm)
• Spiky moss

  Taxiphyllum sp. 'Spiky'

  Low lightEpiphyte2 in (5 cm)

• 

  Christmas moss

  Vesicularia montagnei

  Low lightEpiphyte2 in (5 cm)

• 

  Singapore moss

  Vesicularia dubyana

  Low lightEpiphyte2 in (5 cm)