Taiwan Moss

Taxiphyllum alternans

A moss with hanging fronds, tied to wood or stone rather than planted. It needs almost no light and no fertiliser, and it turns any bare branch into a shelter for shrimp and fry.

Light: low
Difficulty: very easy
Height: 3 – 10 cm (1.2 – 3.9 in)
Temperature: 12 – 30 °C (54 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green
Plant type: epiphyte
Growth rate: slow
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 0 – 14 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: on stone and wood, nano tank
Propagation: division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Fine branched fronds grow sideways and hang down, so a piece of wood covered with it looks like it has a green beard. The mass builds up to a few centimetres thick.

Keeping

Very easy: dim light and no carbon dioxide are enough, and both simply make it grow more slowly. It collects dirt in a still tank, so a little water movement keeps it clean. Cut it back when the layer gets thick — the lower part dies off in the dark otherwise.

Placement

Tied with thread or fishing line to wood and stones, or spread over a mesh to make a green wall. In a nano tank it can carry the whole layout on its own.

Propagation

Pull a clump apart and tie the pieces down somewhere else — each one grows on. Nothing else is needed.

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.

Taxiphyllum alternans 'Taiwan Moss'

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Gollania cochlearifolia, Isopterygium alternans, Isopterygium alternans puteanum, Plagiothecium azumense, Plagiothecium brevicuspis, Plagiothecium calyptothecioides, Plagiothecium sadoense, Plagiothecium turgescens, Taxiphyllum sadoense
Taxiphyllum alternans: (Cardot) Z. Iwats.
Family: Hypnaceae

Taiwan Moss

Tank conditions

Care and keeping