# Killer Java Moss?



## potatoes (Jun 25, 2010)

I have a 10gal tank with endlers live bearers and cherry shrimp. I have a sponge filter and a HOB (with a sponge over the intake) I have massive amounts of java moss; it takes up 2/3 of the tank. It would be closer to a basket ball then baseballs or golfballs. There is enough that even a couple cherry shrimp make it to adulthood even with fish and weekly gravel vacuums and 30% water changes. The tank is fed finely crushed flakes twice a day, but there is always food left over that eventually sinks and is consumed by the waiting cherrys. ammonia is zero, nitrite is zero, nitrate is 10-15.

My endlers population has actally decreased from three to two. They also breed once, and i think the remaining two are the surviving offspring of the original three. I have no idea where my fish are going. IS it possible that they get too adventurous and are getting trapped in the java moss? My teacher had a pregnant molly that was in a separate tank with some java moss and became entangled. She saved it just in time. That possibility never occurred to me, and i was wondering if it could have been the cause of my disappearing fish, but i have so much of this stuff that it seems almost plausible to me. And to think i keep it all to save the shrimp/fish offspring...
what do you think? thanks in advance


----------



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

a mass amounts of java moss should be good for shrimp and inverts but for fish its like a barbed wire jungle but its good for fry...:/ does that make sense? they shouldn't be getting tangled... try fluffing up the java moss for more room.. you're feeding too much, despite what they say about twice a day you should be feeding every other day or every couple of days. for me... theres enough salad around the tank that the last time i fed commercially prepared foods was 1-2 months ago.


----------



## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

and your nitrates are good... just saying. is the tank bare bottom or is their gravel?


----------



## potatoes (Jun 25, 2010)

The tank has some gravel from an established tank that i added when this tank was cycling. It is not enough to completely cover the bottom, but like 2/3 has a thin layer. I left it because the shrimp liked it.

I know i overfeed, but my mom accuses me of being cruel if i feed any less. She blames my lack of feeding on the dissapearence of the fish, so i am trying to figure out where they are going.

So you think the moss could be the culperate? I could remove a lot of it, or most of it. I just like it as shelter for shrimp and as a source of food, but maybe it is too much of a good thing


----------



## Vietguy357 (Sep 20, 2010)

It's unlikely but it is a possibility. To much of a good thing could be a bad thing.  Is it possible for some of the fish to jump out of the tank?


----------



## James0816 (Oct 9, 2008)

I can say that I have lost a couple of Otos and even a couple of shrimp in Java Moss. I try to keep it fluffed up from time to time because of that.


----------



## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

If you can keep the nitrates between 10-15 ppm then you are not overfeeding. The fish eat what they want, the shrimp get what they want. 

If there is food lingering on the bottom after the shrimp have eaten (they are slow) then you are overfeeding. 

I also have had fish caught in Java Moss. Never fry, they are too small to be caught, but older fish. One had some moss entering the mouth and exiting through the gills. 

I have Endlers and similar fish in several tanks with a lot of moss, and they are not getting caught.


----------



## bgodwin1987 (Dec 21, 2006)

I had some incidents were my platies and Danios were getting caught in my Java moss. But I usually was able to see them so they got rescued but I could see if you had a lot of Java moss fish could get trapped in there.


----------



## overboard (Mar 11, 2008)

Could be the endlers are dying and the shrimp are eating them, all hidden from sight...


----------

