So I was in Big Al's (surprise surprise) in the plant section last week and noticed they had lava stone's with something growing on them. Kinda looked like moss balls but not nearly as covered. The sticker advertised them as Pellis on Lava Rock. As I was given tons of lava rock this got me excited, at the moment I have a lot of lava rock and tufa stone that I'm afraid to keep with my goldies in fear they'd injure themselves on it. But if I had a plant growing on it, I'm assuming it would be safe to keep in my tank.

The first thing that got me was the price tag, $30!!!! For one little rock that was barely covered! My question to all you kind folks is this

1) Is Pellia safe for goldies?
2) Is it always so expensive?
3) Is it realistic it will spread to my other lava stones if I decided to purchase one?
4) Can I put it in a tank that is still cycling?
5) Lastly is there a more inexpensive version of something I could grow on my lava stones?

Whew that's a lot of questions, sorry about that I'm very new to fishkeeping and so far the only plants I've had have been chomped to death by my brood! (hogwort, java fern, elodea) I'd love to have moss balls but can't find any locally.

Thanks for reading, hope this made sense. I've done both searches here and on ebay only to come up empty.

Pellia, as my research in the past has revealed, is now considered an invalid name. The plant's name is now Monosolenum tenerum. It's actually a liverwort that is attached to rocks and driftwood by means of tying them to the object. They're pretty fragile, BTW... I predict your goldfish are going to shred them up in the end.

They're more suited to a tropical planted tank populated by non-grazing fish and/or small freshwater shrimps.

EDIT: you could look it up on the Tropica website if you're interested to learn more about the maintenance. They're pretty rare outside Europe so they're justifiably expensive.

Thanks every so much Man Yu! I will give Tropica a whirl...

Sucks that most plants are warmer water plant and that goldies are piggies. lol.

Katalyst- I would say buy it if you have a tropical tank. Its a gorgeous plant,I would love to have some but no Big Al's where I live. Reminds me of riccia which I am growing right now but the plant you are talking about seems to be easier to keep under the water. Tell the people at Big Al's they need to build a store in Sothern California!

People who have kept it generally say it's a pretty easy plant to grow, having no particular water condition or lighting requirements. Which is why I'm wondering... why the heck isn't it more common???

I once saw a single stalk of it mixed in with some riccia years ago, but thought it was leaf fragment from a water wisteria... if I had only known what it was at the time, I would have taken it home in a giddy fit... You could propagate it exponentially from a single fragment, apparently, basing from the descriptions of European aquarists.

I'm very tempted to buy one and house it in an empty tank with hopes to grow several more.

ManYu & Sushi I just found Pellia as it was called on ebay pretty cheap. I'm not sure either one of you is interested but I just thought I'd toss you both the link.

http://search.ebay.ca/search/search.dll?cg...&satitle=pellia

In case it doesn't work I did a search on ebay for: Pellia

Just thought I'd pass along the info

Sure it may be cheap but the shipping on live plants from outside the US cost too much for poor little me. Besides I just order some plants not that long ago and the rest of my money is going to my bro so he can get a nintendo wii.