Java Moss

Ectropothecium barbieri

The moss every aquarist knows: it grows on anything, in any light, at any temperature, and asks for nothing. Its botanical name has changed more than once, which is why it appears in books under several.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 3 – 10 cm (1.2 – 3.9 in)
Temperature: 12 – 34 °C (54 – 93 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: epiphyte
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 21 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: on stone and wood +2 on stone and wood, spawning plant, nano tank
Propagation: division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Fine branching shoots 3–10 cm long with tiny leaves, mid green. In strong light it grows dense and bushy; in dim light it goes darker and looser.

Keeping

Very easy once settled. It tolerates up to about 30 °C but grows faster and looks healthier in cooler water around 24 °C. Feeding and carbon dioxide help but are not required — an iron feed is what keeps the colour strong. Trim it with scissors to shape it and to hold back growth.

Placement

Anywhere: it grips wood, stone, plastic and even filter mats with its rooting hairs, so it can be tied down and left. In dim light it also makes a carpet at the front. Fry hide in it, and shrimp graze the microscopic life it collects — the reason mosses became popular at all.

Propagation

By division: every scrap grows into new shoots.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1034 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Featherfin Synodontis Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Spined Loach Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Other varieties: Taxiphyllum barbieri, Taxiphyllum barbieri ’Bogor Moss’, Taxiphyllum barbieri Javamoos, Taxiphyllum barbieri Java moss 1 2 GROW, Taxiphyllum barbieri Javamoos in Vitro XL

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Isopterygium barbieri Cardot & Copp., Isopterygium barbieri, Taxiphyllum barbieri
Family: Hypnaceae

Java Moss

Tank conditions

Care and keeping