Moss Balls

[FaLSaLBaKoR]

I came across MossBalls in My travels recently & was wondering were they truly benefitial & If so how ? Other than for shrimp to forage on ? I was thinking of buying a few & cutting them in halves and placing the cut ends on the substrate....Would this work or be a bad idea ?
Thanks,
James.

 

[frasertheking]

yeah i ripped one up a few months ago and they just regrow

 

[Miguel]

they are god nitrate consumers...cutting them may make them regrow in the form of a carpet and not as balls.. but very efective nitrate eaters.

 

[donaldastwood]

How are they growing for you? I have two that i ripped up hoping that they would grow, but it seems like they grow realllllly slow, or i am not taking good enough care of them? Any suggestions on making them grow faster?

 

[schaadrak]

They can get crud stuck in them, so a periodic squeeze in a tub of fresh clean water helps a little. They can also get other types of algae growing over top of them that blocks a lot of the light and nutrients. Temps may be a factor since the lakes they come from normally don't get above 70 deg. (F), but I'm not sure that that is growth inhibiting or not.

Cutting them in half and pushing them into the substrate will encourage them to grow into a mat, since the balls are actually formed by waves and currents rolling pieces of the mats around.

 

[wataugachicken]

fertilizer speeds growth. turning them once a week helps them grow evenly.

 

[bigriver]

I no nothing about them,but i see them all the time at the pet store.can you put them under any type of light or do you need special lighting for them.

 

[TheBloodyIrish]

Moss balls, are you talking about those lake balls (Aegagropila linnaei) or what the Japanese calls them as marimo? They are really aglae that have been rolled by the waves into a ball. I think how they cultivate them is that they clip a piece and roll them everyday otherwise it would just flatten out.

They are really cool, a Japanese friend of mine bought me one of those. I still have it. Really easy to take care of too, I just change the water everyday and roll it with every water change. However it's in a small glass piece by itself. They grow really slow though... like low as 1/5 an inch a year in diameter with some cultivated balls. I forget how fast the ones that are sold in Japanese giftshops are.

 

[bigriver]

Ill try again...i see them in lps all the time but no one i mean nobody can tell me how to take care of them.can i use reg fish strip light with no chems, how do you take care of them?? i would love to buy some and just roll them into a tank.can i?

 

[TheBloodyIrish]

They are really easy. You just leave them alone and roll them once in awhile. The more often, the better. They are not that complex to take care of. Mine only get exposure to sunlight... so... it depend on how much light there is in the room.