The rare mosses arrived yesterday evening 😄
The samples were much larger than I expected, and the Cameroon and Queen moss were especially big portions.
I spent a fair bit of time going through them all, there was a bit of duckweed, riccia and vesicularia/taxiphyllum mixed into some of them, as well as snail eggs that looked like they came from the hunting snail, I cant remember the latin name right now but you know the kind. I quite like the work my pest snails are doing so I would like to keep them employed, and also the hunting snails creep me out, I dont trust those sneaky little predators. So I took the time carefully sorting through it all.
There was even a little passenger, a small bluish black shrimp with fairly light brown eyes. It sat in one of the cups of moss while I sorted and mulled over what I was gonna do with the little fellow. I didnt fancy mixing a different strain with my Blue Dreams, but since I didnt have the heart to dispose of it I decided bluish black was close enough and it was allowed to live with the colony. Later that night I asked the seller if he knew what strain the passenger could be. He didnt, but he said he only keeps Caridina, so that means there is no risk of crossbreeding and wild color babies
The little traveler can live out its shrimpy life with me then, unless the water values are too far out for it. I hope it does ok, I have maybe gotten a little bit attached already.
Back to the moss, I can already tell im really gonna like the Cameroon Moss. Its a very big leafy impactful moss. The Queen moss is also cute, the leaves are very visibly growing every other side a bit wonky-like, and it has the appearance of a bad hair day I feel.
While the samples of Fissidens were larger than expected, oh lord was I regretting a bit asking for the smallest variety he had 😅 Absolutely miniscule fronds, I had to use tiny pointed tweezers to get the moss arranged on the coconut pieces, as my fingertips were just too big. The seller sent me three mystery samples of Fissidens instead of one, in addition to Fissidens fontanus. I also found some Fissidens in the Cameroon moss, so might have four mystery varieties.
Im gonna be real with you guys, there are at least four hundred gazillion varieties of Fissidens, and most of them look exactly the same.
I want to collect mosses, but im gonna try to only collect species/varieties that look distinct from each other.
I have never heard anyone say "Wow, those 17 different species of Fissidens really tie your tank together!" Not. Once.
I also discovered a problem with operation "Get the Preciousesss". I have to figure out where to put all of this 🤔 The main problem was the massive amounts of Cameroon and Queen moss, and I wasnt about to throw out any bits of these rare mosses I just spent my hard earned money on. The tank has never been a proper aquascape, but now it is definitely a moss holding facility 😂 So will grow out the coconuts they are on, and then offer portions to other hobbyists and downsize the amount I keep.
Will post pictures of the new mosses as soon as I have some good growth coming out
I have also kept a little secret from you, there has emerged some interesting little things from some of the mossy cups, and it looks like it could be a species of Riccardia, and a smaller one that could be a Riccia sp. Seems like some of the samples contained spores
Until next time 😙
)
As usual im going for quantity over quality so sensitive souls best click away 😁
