moss balls

[jackiomy]

I am looking for some information on Japanese moss balls. I know that they are not actually planted but would like to have some in my aquarium. Does anyone have any knowledge to share?
Thanx

[BradH]

They're called Marimo Moss Balls. What exactly do you want to know about them?

[bluekrissyspike]

i have some in one of my tanks. i don't feed them fertilizer or anything. they just look cool and they need to be washed out by squeezing them in the tank water. i usually do this before i do my weekly water change. they don't like light too much so putting them in a tank with too much wpg is not a good idea. also, if you hear you can rip them apart to make them into more than one don't do it. i did this as an experement with one and now it is just a few little odd shaped chunks. the ones i left alone grow little teeny babies on them that fall off after a bit but so far they seem to get lost in the tank somewhere cause i can never find em after they fall off.. aside from that i don't know what else i can tell ya. my kuhli loaches love playing with them.

[BradH]

I ripped one apart as well thinking that's how you get more. Now it looks like crap. I have others though I'm going to leave alone and see what happens.

[Squeakfish]

I got a malformed one; I just flattened it out and now it's a small rug in my tank. I put a few of those aquarium-safe marbles on top to keep it from floating. Occasionally it pearls, but because of the marbles it doesn't float to the top. The kuhlis use it as a blanket.
The thing takes ages to form, apparently. They can supposedly also last for a couple hundred years and get to about 3m in diameter.
They can be pretty expensive, but make friends with an LFS owner and you might be able to get a "dud" one like mine on the cheap. It doesn't make a difference if it is a perfect ball or a malformed ellipse. I personally think it looks better as a rug.

[DAVIDFBT]

I saw a 2.5 inch one for sale for 5 bucks, thought about it, but instead I got a piece of malaysian driftwood.

[Mgamer20o0]

dont use excel with them lol...... you do cut them in half to make new ones they just grow slow. you have to form it to make it keep its shape.

[jackiomy]

Thanx all. I bought one from a chain store but it is on a piece of fishing line with a sinker on it. It just floats in the water at the end of it's line. I don't think it is the real thing. I am disappointed, but I am hoping to find a real one.

Jacki

[BradH]

That doesn't sound like a real Marimo Ball at all. I put them in and they sink immediately. Do you have a picture of it you could post?

[AshK]

Chain stores make fake marimo usually out of styrofoam wrapped in java moss.

I just bought one today and I love it. It has the attached thread and sinker. The man in the store said it's filled with a tiny styrofoam ball and that makes it float. He said his has grown quite large. My fish seem to like it a lot.


Real marimo are incredibly slow growing, and only grow about 5 mm a year. They feel heavy for their size in the water. If you break your marimo apart, you have to form it into a ball yourself. In their natural habitat, they're rolled around by waves/currents, and the little baby marimo form into balls that way. Once you get a real marimo, make sure you rotate it each time you squeeze it out, so that each side of the ball gets to see the light.

And if any body doesn't want their deformed balls, I will certainly take them! They only exist in a handfull of places in the wild!!

[KIM_TMA]

Chain stores make fake marimo usually out of styrofoam wrapped in java moss.




And if any body doesn't want their deformed balls, I will certainly take them! They only exist in a handfull of places in the wild!!


Too Funny!
Now that I have grown up, I would like to comment.

They have actually been made illegal to transport from the wild, I do believe. I see a seller on ebay every once in a while and he sells them 4 at a time. That is how I got mine. Some are quite large too. My biggest one is about 3 1/2" across.:headbang2:

[jackiomy]

I just tool these pictures of my mossball. What do you think?
57577
57578
57579

[zzyzx85]

Sorry to say but that's a not a true "moss ball." It's a just a ball with java moss covering it, as someone mentioned before.

I just took my marimo ball out of my tank and it's doing quite nicely in a glass jar. Pearls in the jar more than it did in my tank.

[247Plants]

love how that ambulia is hangin on to that dear ball for life.....

[DrNo]

As above... it's not a marimo ball. But a ball covered with Java moss is still cool, so try to enjoy it!

[chazsgirl]

I love my marimo balls they remind me of little fuzzy gremlins!!