Star Moss (Tortula ruralis)

seds

There is heated debate as to weither this moss can survive for long under water. The most common source of this moss is from Aquaticmagic on Ebay or Aquabid. If anyone has kept it alive submersed for more than a few months, please tell us the specs of the tank. Lighting, tank size, CO2 or not, PH, temperature, dosing...

Vladdy

Not a true aquatic moss. At most it will survive for like three months in a high-tech tank. I would not reccoment it. Aquatic mosses grow in clumps, like java moss.

boltp777

this is not a true aquatic moss i know this for a fact i owned it for around 2 months and it died.

C2C

I got it from Aquatic Magic. The ones in the picture are either way bigger than the ones i got or the shrimp is SUPER small. I recieved them in the mail around the 22 of April (just over 2 weeks). They are still dark green no new growth that i can see, no die off that i can see either. I will keep you posted about the growth.

bgssamson

I also got mine April of this year. Just added a picture. It seem growing but not sure for how long. It's not as nice as the onces in there site (Mine is definitely UGLY) but its definitely growing upwards.

C2C

ok so i neglected the tank that was holding these and it has since turned a little brown. so hopefully i will be able to bring it back oh yea i want to CSULB Japanese wateer garden and saw some of this around the roots of a bonsai tree

chingy-vang

It Is Not........a true aquatic. I visit the sierra nevada mountains weekly and I see this moss grown in dry places. They do not grow submerged, though it would be nice to have a submerged species like this

Nue

I seen this moss growing in Wyoming forest, and i also bought some from aquamagic as well, same picture. It never grew, and eventually fell apart and made a huge mess. Ill post a pic of the one i saw in Wyoming.

polykan

Just got some off this off eBay from our friends at AquaMagic. Ordered it back in January and got it just this week (mid June). Fortunately I only put it in a small quarantine tank, just wish I had been smart enough to Google the plant name in the first place. At least the other two plants I ordered check out.

vangp

Omg.. i got these from aquamagic it was horrible it looked like like regular moss i can find at the creek couldn't even see the star :( i did see a lot of mud though it was so disappointing.

Abs

got one from e-bay petshop but it died and give a mess in my tank

Splendid Splendens

Maybe this would be good for terrariums and pond edges?

Viv

I bought some of this 2 or 3 months ago. Nice and green when it went in the tank but went brown over a period of 1-2 weeks, and I thought I'd lost it. Never got around to taking it out though and now (4 - 6 weeks later) I've got some new growth showing on it. I'm not overly hopeful about how well it's gonna do but I'm going to leave and see what happens!

bluegoldfish

I bought some of this recently -also from Aquaticmagic on EBay. I was buying something else from them and thought "why not??" Arrived towards the end of December. I tied it to some driftwood and it did start to sprout a little fairly quickly (was very flat and dormant looking when it arrived) but has since done not much of anything. I guess we'll see.

Ptjameso

I recently found a compact species of moss with almost identical leaf structure in a local creek here in northern California...it is growing in my 20 with some other moss I collected.

ROALSPIN

The pic on the left is star moss.The one on the right is most definitely not.Most mosses sold by eBay sellers including Aqua-bid are not suitable for tropical set ups.Many aren't true aquatic species either.Many of them are semi aquatic meaning they do well partially submerged some but not all of the time.I live in the Pacific Northwest, which seems to be home to every moss on the planet .Ive tried several that are growing all around me including those I find growing below water depth in my local creek.Its not surprising to read just how many people get burned on buying these mosses when they're not even native to tropical environments or can adapt to being submerged.The ones Ive had success with ,are in non heated tanks,med to low lighting ,no CO2 ,slow water movement.As with any plant that is filament like in leaf structure, care must be taken to make sure they're not covered with algae or any detritus,dirt etc.Ive successfully kept this particular plant alive and well for over 2 years without any major issues.

Eindecker

I received this star Moss from Aquatic Magic on eBay it took about 2 to 3 weeks received the a star Moss. Has been in my 55 gallon tank attached to it piece of driftwood for about two months. The tank is high/medium light, temperature 76°, fertilizer once a day. At this time it started to die back there is only a little bit of green sprouts noted at the very top and around edges of the plastic netting that it came attached to. To me like everybody else is saying that this is a non-aquatic plant will not grow in fully submerged in water. I will leave it in the tank and see what happens and if it starts to grow back I will report back on the results. I would like to shake the person's hands who grows this star Moss submerged in water.