The Puffer Forum

i originally had about 4 marimo(moss) balls until the biggest one kinda fell apart into 4 pieces. i read about getting them to grow into a flat ground cover mat and decided to break apart the rest of them, big mistake. this was maybe 2 years ago. ive kept the pieces in a jar with water changes every so often hoping maybe they would just grow back together, but they havent. now, i want to get them into my 10 gallon so maybe they will compete with the algae in there for nutrients and grow back into a ball shape. i would say the group of pieces is about the size of a softball so i was thinking buying a pair of those womens stocking socks and splitting the bunch into two equal pieces, putting each half into a stocking and sewing the open end closed... but will they attach to the stocking? are those stockings even okay to put in my tank? the other option is to buy the biggest aquarium fish net i can find and cut off the netting part to put them in. anyone have any other ideas of what i can put them in to make them attach to each other? i need to have something hold it together because when i put them into a bucket just now, the individual little hairs from each part come off and float around.

Don't they divide, naturally? Not sure if reassemblage is possible...

Just let them be and they'll turn into two separate balls. That's how they reproduce.

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Just let them be and they'll turn into two separate balls. That's how they reproduce.

so just seperate the pieces into 2 jars and they should grow back together? or can i wind a little bit of thread around each bunch and put them into my 10g? i just didnt want little pieces all over the gravel in there.

My marimo moss balls have not growen in a year, The seller said the would get bigger.

What is the purpose of these balls?

CoCoPuffs wrote:What is the purpose of these balls?

theyre just plants and they look cool when theyre in a ball shape unlike mine

http://www.marimoballs.com/

edit: Growth is extremely slow and contrary to aquarium myths they cannot out-compete other forms of algae or other plant species for nutrients. Other faster growing hair or filament algae can grow on top of a Marimo ball just as easily as it would on a rock or piece of wood.(from a site)

aw poop, i guess i just have to get more live plants to get the algae to stop growing.

So, just something to look at? No practical function?

Its a plant that commonly house with cherrys. They love to climb on it to pick food scraps off. They function just like normal plants. All plants have purifying capabilities, no matter how minute.

+1 to scpion's comments.

They are an alga, and are best kept with good current over a fine substrate and with either RC shrimp or Amano shrimp to keep them groomed and algae-free. In the wild, their roundness is maintained but currents moving them about daily. That is not easy to duplicate in captivity.

wtf there is a baby pond snail in the jar with the marimo pieces! i have no idea where he came from.

thanks for all the info. i think ill just keep it the jar and add the airstone (that wont stay put in figgys tank) to it until i figure out what im going to do. if im lucky maybe theyll just grow back into a ball lol

hadla wrote:wtf there is a baby pond snail in the jar with the marimo pieces! i have no idea where he came from.

thanks for all the info. i think ill just keep it the jar and add the airstone (that wont stay put in figgys tank) to it until i figure out what im going to do. if im lucky maybe theyll just grow back into a ball lol

thats how most pet shops get their pest snail problem. anacharis was the main culprit in one i worked at. they are usually too small to see, then they come out of nowhere just like yours lol

jus85411 wrote:

hadla wrote:wtf there is a baby pond snail in the jar with the marimo pieces! i have no idea where he came from.

thanks for all the info. i think ill just keep it the jar and add the airstone (that wont stay put in figgys tank) to it until i figure out what im going to do. if im lucky maybe theyll just grow back into a ball lol

thats how most pet shops get their pest snail problem. anacharis was the main culprit in one i worked at. they are usually too small to see, then they come out of nowhere just like yours lol

yeah, but the pieces have been in that jar for over a year! with no contact to my 10g or 20g. that was one hardy snail egg lol

o_O i dunno then maybe its a mystery snail

jus85411 wrote:o_O i dunno then maybe its a mystery snail

lol new species mystery pond snails