# How to Grow Fissidens?



## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

Hi guys!

I was wondering if anyone here knows how to grow Fissiden species well. Mine are hanging on, have some nice growth at the tips, but overall looks kinda......blah...ish....kind of brown-greenish.

I have them growing in a high light tank tied to driftwood and pagoda stone, running pressurized CO2, and a high fert in water column. pH is about 6.7 through filtered peat, and temp is 76 F.

I see really nice pics of Fissidens here on this site, and would love it if someone could give me some nice pointers. All my other plants are excellent, and I don't have any problems with them.

Any ideas or suggestions? I would super appreciate it!
Don


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

crazydaz said:


> Hi guys!
> 
> I was wondering if anyone here knows how to grow Fissiden species well. Mine are hanging on, have some nice growth at the tips, but overall looks kinda......blah...ish....kind of brown-greenish.
> 
> ...


I'm also having this problem right now. Any particular ferts that it likes?


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

Same here...I can't grow the stuff well.
It grows but it's scrawny and no where near as healthy and luxuriant like some pictures I have seen. Everything else grows like a weed...


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## Crystalview (Aug 10, 2007)

I have found the fissiden will turn a brownish color as kind of a dormance phase when first planted. It takes it awhile to catch up with it's self. You need to be patient with it. It is slow even with CO2. It sometimes does not like when I get the Excel on it. Spypet and I would talk about this all the time. When it starts to green up and get long I trim it and tie it other places. Mine looks a little shaggy now. I love the stuff. Even more then moss.


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## Wö£fëñxXx (Dec 2, 2003)

Fissiden rocks, not sure why you guys are having 
trouble with it.
How hard is your water?
Do you have decent to good flow?
Under high light it is a nutrient sponge.


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## wyeto (Mar 13, 2008)

I had problems when I got some of this from a member here and it arrived in bad shape and it had brown spots on it. I had problems with it and algae and got rid of it and found more of it that was really healthy and it has taken off for me. I think the difference was that the first time around I bought it it was individual fronds and the second time it was clumped up at the base. Might sound weird but this is how it worked for me.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

Mine has grown quite well. I have it in my 10g shrimp tank. I have it near the top so it gets a lot of light. I am not sure if that has any significance. I have DIY CO2 in there and do EI dosing. That tank runs a little warmer than my others and it still doesn't seem to mind. I have had the tank set up for 8 months and have trimmed it 2 times. It's not as fast a grower as the Xmas moss but still pretty fast for fissidens.


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Mine is under high light with a Koralia fan blowing over the top of it. I just recently bought a Phosphate kit and noticed that my Phosphates were 0 the next day after dosing. I'm going to increase the amount of Phosphate a little bit and see what happens. I keep my Nitrates between 10-20.


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## MrAL (May 14, 2008)

When i first got mine, i thought it was going to die because it started to turn brown and i didn't see any new leaves. I just left it there and after about a month i saw new leaves start to sprout. I think the key is patience and a LOT of it. My 10g shrimp tank doesn't even have anything special in it. 18000k light on 12 hours a day, no ferts, 5% WC daily and a DIY co2. Just be patient and you'll be rewarded. =)


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## silverdubb03 (Oct 27, 2007)

My fissidens is growing nicely when I added more light. Good Stuff!!!!

Specs: 29-gallon w/65W coralife; ph 6.5; 74 F; DIY CO2


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

cooler, acidic water is the thing for mine. water doesnt necessarily need to be soft, but acidic and cooler is the trick, along with CO2. ferts dont seem to matter either. the cooler the water, the greener the growth. same seems to apply to my mini-pelia. and yes, it is a nutrient sponge.


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Growth is not a problem, it grows like crazy. I transferred some onto a piece of wood in a new tank with AS. I noticed immediate growth, much faster than any other tank I've tried. The AS did change my water params and I think that attributed to the phenomenal growth, but I can't get it to grow bright green like the pic silverdubb03 provided. 

I see where dhavoc mentions cooler water. That is a problem here in Florida, at least in the summer. I have my heater set for 78, but the tank runs between 80-82 right now at that's with the A/C blowing right on the tank. What kind of temps do you keep?


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## dhavoc (May 4, 2006)

mine seems to grow that bright green in tanks wiht temps ~75 or less, above that, its grows but a darker, duller green.


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

^^ that's what I have, a darker, duller green.


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## marrow (Feb 4, 2007)

In my experience the biggest determinant of fissidens growth all other things being equal has been the stability of the tank, placing it in a tank and leaving it there as well as stable water parameters. When I first obtained some I fussed over it too much and it grew painfully slow and unevenly.


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I was researching this same thing when I had a thought:

Could this be due to the species of fissidens? I know that there are several kinds.. maybe all the people with brown/scraggly lokking fissidens have a different sp. than the nice lush kind?

I am wondering this because I seem to have two types. One is beautiful, lush, strong, green.. and another type in the same tank is scrawny and brown in areas.

Can anyone tell me what the best looking fissidens out there is?


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## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, bro! 

Personally, I like good ol' Fissidens fontanus. The leaf size and shape is perfect for so many things....at least in a bigger-sized aquarium.

I wonder if the moss is getting a little burnt from the lighting or adapting to new environmental conditions. Did the brown-colored type rate moved into the tank more recently than the green type?


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## Hunter P (Aug 6, 2013)

anyone that has theirs booming with growth wanna get rid of some?


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## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

Hunter....check the For Sale subforum. I saw a few people selling Fissidens.


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