Marimo Balls - Cladophora aegagropila

Just ordered 3 2" standard and 15 1/5-2/5" 'nano' Marimo balls, Cladophora aegagropila. Ships from Japan I think so it will be a while. haha



Anyone else here caring for these? I searched for marimo and cladophora but found nothing.

Most of the nanos are going into a shrimp/snail tank I am working on(10 ghost and 30 RCS en route). Thinking of getting Tylomenia 'towuti white spot' snails to go in there. Hoping to have dwarf hairgrass, duckweed, Fissidens splachnobryoides and possibly star moss as plants. The rest of the nanos will be going into the water portion of my fire belly toad paludarium.

I have been working on a 55 gallon cichlid rock tank, as its a mental image right now and I figured these 2" Marimo balls would be the best bottom plants for the digging interior decorators(convicts most likely).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimo

i have seen them in store but i do not have any live plants. look cool. good luck.

Have you tried to google "moss ball"

Here's an article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimo

I have one medium size moss ball. They really require no care. A very slow growing moss and all you really have to do is rotate the ball once and awhile to avoid brown spots. They also don't need much light and will be happy is most conditions.

The plan is for the shrimp in one tank and the cichlids in the other to do all the work for me.

Going to be getting some myself when I find the right deal. They are nice additions to shrimp tank.

FYI ... Beware of Star Moss ... It is terrestrial and not fully aquatic. Just a heads up.

LOL yes convicts should rearrange the decor enough for no brown patches not sureabout the shrimp though.

James0816 wrote:

Going to be getting some myself when I find the right deal. They are nice additions to shrimp tank.

FYI ... Beware of Star Moss ... It is terrestrial and not fully aquatic. Just a heads up.

Thanks. I will steer clear of that for this purpose, might have to get some for the D.auratus vivarium I am planning though.

I guess the RCS like to roll & ride the little moss balls around! wwoooohooo

I have several, like 'striking' said they don't take much care and seem to do fine in most light. I've never seen my rcs rolling them around but they do like to graze on them. When I vacuum they get moved so that's about all I do.
I would watch the cichlids most don't like plants and will pick them to pieces.

I've been wanting to get some. But the local petco has some which are like, 80% brown. I have seen them other places like petsmart in the shrimp tanks. They have ghost, crystal reds, crystal blacks and cherry shrimp who seem to adore it!

I bought one a while back looks nice in the tank....coool part is if you give it alot of light they actually float release oxygen then sink back down. Fishy beachball. That was in my sword tank with 4 t-5 ho lights going on a 40br tank. They look great and are easy to take care of....heck even the junk chain stores can keep them alive and they kill java ferns.

My personal experience with the Marimo balls was generally good. My problem was MTS Snails. They ate them from the inside out ! Didn'rt know that was going on till it was too late. Other snails didn't seem to bother them. And my RCS and Ghost Shrimps loved to pick/graze on them.
Just my 2 cents ,,, Ray

yes they are pretty neat.. shrimp loves them..
i fould some at PetSmart and Petco for 7.99 i think.... and they were pretty big
lot at their sites online...
plenty on aquabid also..

Be nice to find a group of marble (say aggy) sized ones.

A bit lazy to do my research.. but.. Can ya buy just one and split it and they'll reform the ball? if so, how long? Bill

yep...they say just to cut them in half. with no experience in the matter, i can't really say. lol

Had great luck with them. Keep them in with Apple Snails as well as a tank full of young plecos/female bettas/ghost shrimp/zebra danios. I picked mine apart when I purchased them and made large marble-sized balls. They are now golf ball - 3 months later.

awesome in a tank....

The ones I saw at petsmart/petco were a different species. They were moss tied to styrofoam balls!

aqmagic has the nano marimo balls, marble size -->

Plant Group Algae
Origin Lake Akan Hokkiado, Japan
Difficulty Easy
Light Intensity Low to High
Water Parameters 68-86 °F (20- 30°C); pH 6.0-7.5; kH 3-8
Size Approx 1/5"-2/5" (5 mm-10mm) in diameter
Propagation Leaf division

I saw some of these on eBay. Any idea if it would be a good idea to buy from there? They were pretty cheap.

If they are claiming its actually Cladophora aegagropila it cant hurt anything but the pocket book. Just pull one open and see if its styrofoam, charcoal or something else. I say charcoal as I have a fake Marimo ball with a charcoal filter center in my fire belly toad tank as its a filter, ok looking and keeps smells down I guess. The ones I got from Japan seemed like green felt balls, haha.

I would think anyone selling fake balls with a label would be open to legal actions!

The ones I saw were just called 'moss balls', there were no latin names or local names or anything. And the 'fake' one I have was called something along the lines of 'odor removing fake moss ball for turtle tanks'. haha

Dear sales Manager,
On behalf of Petlogis International Ltd we would like to introduce our main aquarium plant Cladophora Marimo moss balls, which often green-fresh-clean-well selected.
We guarantee to provide all our clients with the best quality in addition to advantage prices. We enable to secure different moss sizes as follows:
2-3cm/3-4cm/4-5cm/5-6cm/6-7cm/7-10cm/10-12cm
Our minimum order 1000 pieces/size.
We own long years experience to export to US-Far East- European Union.
Once interested contact us on:
E-mail:hariedy@t-online.hu
Skype: hariedy2