Thursday, February 26, 2015

Shopping for Java Moss Online

Since my local fish store doesn't stock Java Moss in their live plants section, I resorted to ordering it online from eBay sellers.  I kind of cringed at the thought of ordering anything live online, but after checking feedback comments on two sellers, I decided to give them a try.

Seller 1 (I'm not going to give out the user name though.) was located in Montana.  He was selling a 'golf ball sized portion' for $4.99 with free shipping.  You saw what I got the other day.


Mostly brown/ olive green with strands of vibrant green.


I put some on the driftwood in my 29G tank.

This batch was bought on Feb. 15, shipped on the 17th, arrived on the 21st.  Arrived in a bubble mailer, carefully wrapped in a layer of newspaper, then aluminum foil, then some more newspaper.  When I got the Java Moss in a Ziploc bag out.  It frankly looked squished.  The outer layer was mostly brown/olive green.  I found the bright green bits mostly in the middle after carefully loosening them in a bucket of aquarium water.

And here's the second batch I just received from Seller #2 to the right of this 6-gallon baby Marimo tank.


To the left, of course, is the Java Moss from the first batch after being in this tank for 4 days or so.


To be fair, I'll show the close-ups.  It's not entirely dead-looking.  There are some strands of bright green in there.


You just have to look really closely. LOL

And here's the interesting part.  Seller #2 was offering 'grade A, baseball size clump of Java Moss' with free shipping for $12.99 (I know it's a lot, considering you can get them for free from fellow hobbyists ... if you know any in your area that is.  ^^; )  It arrived in a regular basic white business size envelope with "security" printing on the inside, packed simply in a Ziploc bag with no additional wrapping whatsoever.  The seller did put a slip of instruction explaining Java Moss and how to best take it out of the bag and place in your aquarium.

Both arrived flat and wet.  But the second batch was VIBRANT GREEN and HEALTHY looking.  I was amazed ... shocked almost to see it arrive in such an inconspicuous packaging and ended up looking so good!  The seller #2 was located in Pennsylvania.  The second batch was purchased on the 17th, shipped on the 20th, and arrived here in Colorado on the 26th.  I have to say, I was impressed with Seller #2's Java Moss.

I'm usually a patient type, but looking at the two clumps, I can't say I like the look of the moss from my first purchase.  So I pulled them out of my 29-gallon tank and placed small clumps from my new batch. :D


Yes, I think it looks much better now. XD  I'm waiting on a piece of Mopani wood I won on eBay from a seller in Texas to put in my Angelfish tank.  So I'm going to leave the good-looking moss in the baby Marimo tank for a little longer.  ^_^    Meanwhile, I'm leaving the not-so-good-looking clump in there to see if it greens up more if I give it enough time.   Well, it's been fun shopping online so far. Many hits with a few misses here and there.   

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Hi, Sean.
      Sad to say, the brown batch never recovered in the tank. The bits I had in the windowsill eventually greened up, but that was midway through the year, and even then, it never looked quite as good as the second batch.

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