Hello, and even though you shouldn't use the moss I think a big reason it may be dieing on you is the amount of waste these guys produce. I think I read a couple threads in the past about people wanting to put live plants in and it wasn't recommended due to this reason. I agree with Eli that it is a loseing battle. Another thing you don't want to put enough water in the substrate so you can see it on the glass on the bottom. They abrorb the water out of the substrate so if you are keeping that nice and moist that's why he doesn't go to soak. He doesn't feel the need to.