Aquamoss Newsletter #1

I must apologise for the long delay for the Aquamoss Newsletter. The lame excuses are that I'm too busy taking care of my 2 small kids and a job that consumed most of my life.

In this first issue of Aquamoss Newsletter, I'll introduce a few aquatic mosses that I came across. Some of you might have already seen these mosses(Fissidens fontanus, Fissidens sp., Flame Moss, Mini Taiwan Moss, and String Moss) in Singapore or read about them on the internet, but for others, they might be pretty new to you. Please follow the links on the left to read about them.

Recently, it was brought to my attention that there is another terrestrial moss species, Hypopterygium tenellum, being known as 'Peacock Moss' in the acadamic studies. Hence, the continue usage of the name of 'Peacock Moss' for the aquatic moss Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock' might cause confusion. The interesting thing is that if you Google 'Peacock Moss', you will probable find with reference to Selaginella uncinata - a prehistoric relative of the fern, instead of Hypopterygium. Does it mean that as long as they are not in the same family, they could be called the same common name? Whatever it is, I will reference the aquatic peacock moss as Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock' to differentiate it.

The Singapore Botanic Gardens has a bi-yearly publication, Gardenwise. In the January 2006 issue of Gardenwise (you can download the PDF version from their website, or from the hotlink here), there was an interesting article written by Dr Benito Tan - A Bryophyte Garden on a Rubber Slipper. His group of participants went to Mount Halimum National Park in Java, Indonesia. And they found a slipper submerged in water that was 2/3 covered with 14 species of bryophytes. Some of the bryophytes highlighted were Callicostella papillata, Vesicularia reticulata, Riccardia spp., and Fissidens hollianus. They estimated that the slipper must have been submerged in the stream for more than 5 years for all the bryophytes to grow on it. Other than Vesicularia reticulata (Erect Moss), Riccardia spp. (Mini Pellia and Coral Pellia) that we have already known, Callicostella papillata and Fissidens hollianus are something new to the aquatic hobby since they are able to grow submersed and be used for aquascaping. There are the other 10 species that were not mentioned in the article. I wonder when will these new aquatic bryophytes be available to the aquarist.

As a side note, Dr Benito Tan referenced the Callicostella papillata and Vesicularia reticulata as 'Creeping Moss', and Fissidens hollianus as 'Erect Moss' when he describe them in the literature. So I guess the confusion of the mosses name has long been there when Vesicularia reticulata was being named as 'Erect Moss' by some hobbyist, and similarly another Vesicularia sp. which was named as 'Creeping Moss'.

I acquired the Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock' sometime back in year 2004 while I was on a tour to Shanghai, China. I bought a small quantity of the moss back and it had grown slowly on me. I knew it looked different from the normal Java Moss or Taiwan Moss, and it was after Dr Tan's identification that it was confirmed to be so. However it could not be identified to the species level. I found it nice and interesting, and since it was not available in our LFS or other online sources that I searched, I decided to call it Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock' or Peacock Moss and introduced it to the hobbyist here in year 2005. Sometime after my introduction of Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock', another moss appeared in the market and some hobbyists liked to call it Spiky Moss, and it seemed like nobody knew the origin of this Spiky Moss. Dr Tan was also unable to confirm the species name for the Spiky Moss. Some people have grown both of the Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock' and Spiky Moss and have reported that the two mosses looks similar under submersed condition. The microscope pictures of the cells of both mosses showed some subtle differences, but since both of the mosses did not produce sporophytes, there were difficulties in species identification. The Spiky Moss might end up to be the same as Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock', but whatever it is, both of them are nice mosses and untimately it is the final aquascaping with the mosses that matter most.

Other than aquatic moss, my good friend, Rick Thng, has written a very comprehensive article on Neolamprologus multifasciatus. They are the smallest cichlids in the world which hail from Lake Tangayika where their life surrounds empty snail shells.

If you hate dyed fish, join me in the crusade against new dyed fish I have spotted selling in the local fish shop in Singapore.

I have stopped accepting entries for 'Name the moss contest'. Please see the list of names that you have submitted and give me your vote for your favorite name.

Quite a number of you had emailed me to ask for moss. I have some small quantities of Taxiphyllum sp. 'Peacock' available. Please email me for details.

Finally, please feel free to use the photos from this website, but do not modify the photos in any way (like removing away the copyright notice). I would also appreciate you could put a back link to http://www.aquamoss.net in your page when you use the photos.

Sincerely,
Tan SW