Moss Ball Division

[Invader Xan]

I have an assortment of marimo (cladophora aegagropila) balls. They're brilliant -- shrimp love them and they do a great job of keeping spot and hair algae under control (if algae grows at all, it grows very slowly).

Though I have a question to anyone who's owned these for a while... I bought a couple of large ones a few days ago, but when I got them home, I noticed that one seems to have a hole in it. Do moss balls split on their own, or has a fish at my LFS had a nibble on it? Either way, it'll grow back into spheres if I split it up into smaller pieces, right? Could always trim it into shape, I guess. Tiny topiary, anyone?

FYI, for anyone in the UK -- Maidenhead Aquatics is a great place to buy these. They look fantastic and I'd recommend them to anyone!

 

[Stephanie p]

I have an assortment of marimo (cladophora aegagropila) balls. They're brilliant -- shrimp love them and they do a great job of keeping spot and hair algae under control (if algae grows at all, it grows very slowly).

Though I have a question to anyone who's owned these for a while... I bought a couple of large ones a few days ago, but when I got them home, I noticed that one seems to have a hole in it. Do moss balls split on their own, or has a fish at my LFS had a nibble on it? Either way, it'll grow back into spheres if I split it up into smaller pieces, right? Could always trim it into shape, I guess. Tiny topiary, anyone?

FYI, for anyone in the UK -- Maidenhead Aquatics is a great place to buy these. They look fantastic and I'd recommend them to anyone!

Same thing happened with mine, what i did was tie string around it.

 

[Invader Xan]

...to make it split into two...?

 

[Stephanie p]

...to make it split into two...?

Sorry for the late reply, i done it to keep it together

 

[nero]

Hi there!
Wow, youre lucky to have got some of them! so cool!
Anyway, as far as i know, the spherical shape is caused my them rolling around in streams and stuff. To keep a good sphgerical shape, you are meant to turn them regularly. If you squish them onto the substrate they grow into a flat carpet. Propagate them via division, then roll into ball shapes. So I guess if you seperate it into two, and roll each back into a ball shape, then turn them often, the spherical shape will be maintained.

Hope this helps!
Nero