Mossballs Dying

[Amunet]

Just wondering if anyone could help me save my mossballs.
We got them a little over a month ago. They were in our main tank until a few days later I saw that they were starting to lose color.
So I took them out and put them into my 10gal where they've been ever since.
They were doing just ok for a while. Not getting worse, but not really getting any better either.

I just wanna know what I can do do hopefully keep them from dying since my lil betta loves them to pieces.

I've been adding in Seachem Flourish and Excel to the tank as it instructs, so all the plants should be getting enough nutrients.
I roll them and gently squeeze them out once a week to get out debris and all of that, but just.. I dunno what's wrong with them.
Earlier I got one of my droppers and put injected some flourish right into the balls thinking that maybe it would help.


Here is a pic of them. They're actually not this white though.

 

[Kevstir]

these balls aren't actually moss there a type of algae , from what iv read excel is quite good at kill some type of algae , maybe that's the problem??

hopefully someone that knows better than me will be along to give a better explanation.

Kev

 

[Azaezl]

I don't know much about them either but they look pretty dead to me, so I doubt you will be able to get them back to looking healthy. My biggest one started to look a little off colour I just raised it up higher so it was closer to the light then the plants and it seemed to get a bit better. Do you think it might be getting too much shade from some of your plants? The other thing it could be is that with it being a type of algae your plants might be sucking up all the nutrients and outcompeting the algae and so it's dieing. I'm expecting this to happen with mine once my plants really take off, when / if it does I'll move the balls into a tank with no plants(well fake ones) so it'll be the only thing taking in nutrients / light so it should do well.

 

[DevUK]

Apparently you can break these appart to "grow" new ones. Might be worth splitting one of them to see if theres any life inside? Might be able to remove the dead outer parts perhaps? This is purely speculation thogh

 

[Azaezl]

I broke 2 bits off my large ball and they did seem greener then the larger one so maybe dev is on to something, split it in half if it's green inside then try to pick the dead outer bits off IYKWIM and turn it inside out so the greener inside is on the outside and then you'll have 4 smaller balls.

 

[DevUK]

I was reading about them last night you see, cos I bought 4 for £5.50 with free shipping from someone on eBay. I read that to propogate them you simpley break them in half and just keep rotating till its a ball again Eventually the two halves will grow and become two seperate balls.

 

[Amunet]

Yeah I know they're a form of algae, but I didn't think that the other plants would be sucking up too much of the nutrients from them.
Hrmm... I'll try breaking them up and hopefully see some greener bits inside.

Thanks for the advice and info everyone.

 

[Rob.S]

I was reading about them last night you see, cos I bought 4 for £5.50 with free shipping from someone on eBay.

I got mine from the same seller (I got 6) . Thanks to the post office they looked more like moss pancakes

How do you get them to sink?

 

[Azaezl]

You have to squeeze all the air out of them, squeeze them underwater(I'd advise doing this in a bucket of water rather then in your tank as it can make the water a little cloudy), if they don't sink straightaway after that some air might still be trapped so just leave them floating, eventually they will sink.

 

[Rob.S]

Yes, I guess I should have thought of that one myself

 

[Azaezl]

Lol don't be embarassed, I only know because I read it on here

 

[fishboy619]

well what ever happened, you managed to do one thing not many people have done before, kill a moss ball, lol. to most people, they are invinceable, maybe its something you added, but mine grow great in normal light, no CO2 or any other plant extras. but they grow even better with extra light and co2

 

[Neal]

I seriously thought you had put two hamsters into your tank, I was like haha very funny, then I read a few posts, looked at the pictures again and went "Oops, they are real!".

 

[TammyLiz]

They do look like hamsters.

I bet it was the excel. It would make sense. And injecting it straight into it would really have done them in if they are sensitive. Excel kills BBA, why not moss balls, too?

 

[RadaR]

It was certainly the Excel that did it.