This fragile and delicate plant is well known to aquarists around the world. Moss string helps to achieve a great design home reservoir. Novice lovers of observing the underwater world are sometimes afraid to acquire this beautiful moss, fearing difficulties in care and not finding the necessary information about the plant.
Today, moss spikes, thongs (photos you can see in this article) are the most popular among aquarists. Spiky Moss looks stronger, has rather large leaves of bright green color. The shoots of the plant have a central stem with lateral branches of different lengths. They are triangular in shape, so the plant resembles a herringbone.
A string of moss is very tender. We’ll talk about him in more detail. We hope that the information received will be useful not only to beginners, but also to experienced aquarists.
Spread
Thong moss, the photo of which you see below, has several more names: Stringy Moss, Leptodictyum riparium, wavy moss. It can be considered one of the most common types. It grows in Europe and Antarctica, the Caucasus, Asia, the Far East, Australia, and Africa. Usually it settles in temporary and permanent reservoirs. He likes stagnant water, tolerates a weak current.
Often it can be found on the roots of trees located under water, marshes. The depth of growth is small - no more than one meter. You can find this plant on land - in wetlands. In this case, for resettlement, it chooses the bark of a tree, stones, dams, and sometimes the earth.
Japanese moss string has features that make it difficult to confuse with other species. It grows only upward, has a memorable appearance, belongs to tall plants in its family - bushes grow up to 15-30 centimeters.
External features
Moss String is a representative of the family of Amblestigiaceae. He got his name because of his appearance. It has very thin, dark or light green stems growing upwards, up to thirty centimeters long. The distances between beautiful two-row leaves, often facing one way, are quite large.
The leaf is oblong-lanceolate, with a pointed tip up to three and a half millimeters in length, having a thin vein that ends slightly above the middle and rarely branches up. Bubbles can often be seen on the leaves, as the leptodicium releases oxygen. Sods are soft, brown or yellowish green.
Moss in the aquarium
If you decide to use this plant to design an aquarium, remember that it grows only up. Even if you fix it to the snag horizontally, the moss thong will still reach the surface of the water. How to plant this pretty plant? Experienced aquarists know some secrets, and we will tell you about them.
When planting this plant, it should be noted that leptodictyum riparium takes root very slowly in the soil, so if you decide to place a thong bush on a stone or snag, then it should be tied with a thin line that is removed after the plant has taken root. What else to look for?
To fix the leptodicy in your chosen place, tie it and leave it alone for two to three months. Moss string is extremely fragile, so you should work with it with extreme care.
Design options
The unusual appearance of this variety of mosses allows you to create towers, columns and other interesting compositions in the aquarium. It is undesirable to plant it near the front wall, because when the moss grows well, it will close the entire review. The best place for it is on the side walls of the aquarium or along the back wall. Thus, you can create outlandish underwater thickets.
If you plant moss string in separate groups, you can get beautiful air columns of different sizes and shades. From them, you can build both the simplest and simplest patterns, as well as very original compositions (a tower, a column or even a whole castle).
Sometimes for decoration, moss string is mixed with other species. For example, richch string does not allow to break up. By spreading it along the bottom and securing with stones, you can get a luxurious lawn with vertical branches.
Interestingly, in the West, moss string is popular not only in aquariums. It is used in interior decoration. To do this, they plant it in a tall glass or vase. Sometimes shrimp or snails are planted there. This composition looks very impressive.
Moss thongs: maintenance and care
This plant is unpretentious in maintenance, it does not need any special conditions. But at the same time, caring for it has some features. Coastal leptodicium, like most mosses, does not tolerate water temperatures above +25 ° C, so there are problems when kept together with more heat-loving plants. At temperatures below +18 ° C, the plant stops growing, but at the same time does not lose its decorative effect for several weeks.
Another point that should not scare beginners: the string takes root for a rather long time in a new place, after landing it practically stops growing. After a short time, the bushes will begin to actively develop. The only advice: do not disturb them in vain, transplanting from place to place.
Water requirements
This representative of mosses prefers clean, free of organic matter water. Otherwise, it quickly grows into a “beard”, which negatively affects not only its appearance, but also on development. A small container (20-40 l) can not be equipped with a filter. In this case, regular cleaning and removal of contaminants by a siphon will be sufficient.
For large-volume aquariums, you need a good filter, which should work around the clock without creating a strong current. This is especially true for the internal pump filter.
Imbalance of minerals in water often leads to algae overgrowing moss. This happens with a lack of nitrates and potassium or with an excessive phosphate content.
Lighting
Lighting can be anything, but with brighter moss grows and develops more actively. To determine that the plant lacks light is easy - the moss will darken. The duration of the light supply depends entirely on the needs of other aquarium inhabitants.
Amano prawns are excellent at cleaning moss , removing the thread and all the small debris from it. Digging soil and large fish are not suitable as companions to this plant, since moss is very fragile.
Mowing Thong
This variety needs a regular haircut. Use scissors to trim the shoots, leaving a length of at least five centimeters. Thongs do not like too short haircuts. Sometimes after such treatment the plant turns yellow and may even die.
Moss very quickly builds green mass and restores decorativeness. We do not recommend starting this process: the branches can turn into unsightly groomed weeds that begin to cling to each other, get tangled, rot and float to the surface. Despite the fact that this species is classified as slowly growing, in terms of growth rate it exceeds no less popular species: spikes and Christmas moss. In a month, the vegetative mass increases by 2-3 times.
Breeding
Leptodicium coastal vegetatively propagates by dividing the bush. It is better to buy a large copy that is already attached to the substrate. It must be placed in the aquarium and allowed time to grow. After this, the mother plant is separated for transplantation. It is not difficult to do this: cut a piece of the required volume and attach it with fishing line or kapron thread to the substrate. You can use stones, coconut shells and other objects (neutral for water), which must be firmly installed in the ground. They will not let the bush float to the surface.
Today, in any pet store in the appropriate direction, you can buy moss string. An aquarium decorated using this plant looks original and unusual.