My purpose in life is to grow Marimo Balls.

sounds like a conspiracy to me....... I'm reporting you to homeland security...


lol make sure they have good water flow and have enough light/nutrients, like any other plants I'm guessing =) let me know how your invasion goes

I have two jumbo marimo balls (~4 inches diameter). I bought the first one as an impulse buy since I've never seen such large ones for sale before. They are very expensive in Japan, but I think these are cultured ones. My gf mocked me saying I bought another stupid useless toy, but several days later she bought one for herself to put in my tank. She said she felt strangely happy/satisfied buying such a big marimo ball...:grinyes:

These things are terrible for aquascaping. I have no good place to put them so they are residing next to my filter in the corner. My gf wants her dam ball in the front, but it looks seriously out of place. Every time my gf comes to visit, I roll the ball out to the front, but once she leaves I roll it back next to the filter.

What does the inside look like when you cut one of these things open?

Rotring600 said:

But I just got the things today and hope I don't kill them by the weekend. Can anyone post some tips on the care and feeding of Marimo Balls?

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they grow reeaallly slow. they pretty much just need to be squeezed out at water changes to get rid of debis that gathers in them and make sure they don't get stuck on one side all the time or they'll get a flat spot/ no matter how much you want a bunch of little moss balls, don't tear it into peices. it will take forever to get the peices round again. i did this a year and a half ago. i ended putting the little peices into a 'betta' bowl so i can roll them often to try to make them round.

theredchaser said:

What does the inside look like when you cut one of these things open?

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same green fuzz. just a bit darker

They're hollow like tennis balls, but not very interesting on the inside.

I've ripped one into halves or thirds then flattened the pieces to make little fuzzy "hills" in a shrimp tank. Everyone loved hiding out underneath them.

oh. mine weren't hollow inside. weird. maybe yours were bigger? mine were about 2" across

Yup, mine were bigger. They were smooshed almost flat when I received them, so I had to fluff them up again under water.

mine looked like a disco ball inside....

Marimo Balls are erroneously called Moss Balls when in fact they are big Algae balls.

acevudoo said:

mine looked like a disco ball inside....

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Sorry but those that are sold with a round piece of Styrofoam inside are fake. Those are mostly sold at chain stores.

Mine are not hollow inside. Rather they have a brown dirt like fluff inside. It most likely was the older Algae that is inside. As new Algae grows over the old it expands and grows as a whole. If you spread the old "Dirt" inside around you can seed a tank with an outbreak of Algae really fast. LOL. Its basically cladophora algae and it is turned into a ball by wave action in their native waters.
Good article here
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/cladophora.html

And here
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_freshwater_algae.php
Cladophora algae
Cladophora is a branching, green filamentous alga, that forms a moss like structure. This algae doesn't appear to be slimy. Threads are very strong and very thin. It grows on rocks and submersed wood exposed to direct light, and in extreme cases will grow on plants also. Usually it tends to stay on one spot, which makes it easy to remove. Comb it and dose more CO2. In a case where Cladophora takes over the grassy plants, mow the plants like the lawn. No algae eater is known to eat this kind of algae.
Photo credit: Dusko Bojic.