im a killer.. of moss lol

[deranged chipmunk]

ok....hold here. everybody just step away from their keyboards and take a deep breath. ok? ok. let's discuss moss for a second. it is extremely, and i mean EXTREMELY difficult to kill moss. i have reanimated moss that was dried for 6 months. it just takes time. Queen, it's been less than 2 weeks, the moss will take a few months to start taking off. but it does need bright light and a lot of moisture. it needs to stay moist. not soaking wet, but moist.

as far as mosses in the hobby, there are numerous labels, but they mostly come from the same source area. companies like to label moss as "tropical", but most of it is cultivated in the southeastern U.S. SUB-tropical. some of the moss comes from the pac-northwest, this is temperate, and then there is true tropical moss. it is actually rare in the hobby because there are so few differences in the moss from South America, and the moss from Southeast United States. trust me, if you were getting moss directly from South America, it would be twice the cost. now, these are the "green terrestrial mosses". there are also plenty of aquatic mosses that grow marginally just as well as terrestrial moss does. then there is sphagnum moss. this comes in two varieties: dead and completely dried out (what we commonly call Long Fiber Sphagnum) and live. live is rare, but can be obtained. LFS is one of the few mosses that will not regenerate because it went through a lengthy process to dehydrate it for it's use.

the main thing you want to see from your moss is spore pods (i'm sure they have a real name, that's what i call them). they will be small shoots with a pod at the top. if you are getting new ones growing and kicking off, then your moss is indeed alive and happy. if not, you need to up the moisture and or lighting and you should get some results.

all that being said, i looked at Josh's, B.J., and NE Herp's mosses, and they are pretty comparable. they are the same mosses that Lisa collected in the field in the Carolinas a few months back. hmm....starting to get a little more interesting. basically, none of the suppliers have a superior product. it all depends on the viv. the ones to stay away from are the prepackaged big box pet store stuff, like zoomed's frog moss. that stuff is dehydrated pillow moss that will green up if it is kept extremely moist, but otherwise, it's a waste of a couple bucks. honestly? the best bang for the buck is Josh's sheet moss. it's the same moss i get from my local plant shop (same packaging, i have had both), at around the same price.

so, Queen, you have live moss, you just need to keep it moist, give it plenty of light and most importantly, be patient. moss is an extremely slow growing plant that sometimes takes up to 3-6 months to acclimate. hope that clears up some of the confusion.