Moss balls breaking down

[mikebren12]

Hi,

wondered if anyone knows anything about Mossballs, have about a dozen of these in my main tank, they seemed to have been growing fine until recently when I noticed two of them have broken down from the ball shape.

They are almost open, that is to say, almost like a slug shape, wondered whether they do this normally.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Mike

 

[rpp1973]

Hi Mike. when mine did this last year i just made them into smaller balls and re grow them . im not sure but could possably be a natrual way of regenerating?:dk:

 

[Doodles]

Does seem normal, any ive had have always done it eventually. I bought a biggish moss ball and opened it up to cover a rock in my nano tank. It looks good now as grown very slowly over the last year to look like its naturally there. Ill get a photo later to show you.

 

[rpp1973]

be carefull if you have java moss in the same tank as it can get well and truly in grown!

 

[mikebren12]

Does seem normal, any ive had have always done it eventually. I bought a biggish moss ball and opened it up to cover a rock in my nano tank. It looks good now as grown very slowly over the last year to look like its naturally there. Ill get a photo later to show you.

Hi Doodles, thanks for that, a pic would be really helpful.

Hi Mike. when mine did this last year i just made them into smaller balls and re grow them . im not sure but could possably be a natrual way of regenerating?:dk:

.

Did you seperate them or roll them into little smaller balls, how did you keep them in shape?

Thanks

Mike

 

[rpp1973]

well mine kinda split and went al bitty. i just made little marble sized balls and they look to be growing.
i guess a elastic band may hold them back into ball shape:dk:

 

[jessonthenet]

Tell them to cheer up then.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I like these, but I'm a bit of an algae fan all around. I think calling them "moss balls" was genius, I don't think "green algae balls" would have sold quite as well.

You can only keep them as balls by rolling them around fairly regularly, otherwise the surface that is always shaded will die, and they will grow on the side in the light. I like them grown over pebbles etc to give the "bumpy carpet" look. I'm told naturally that they grow in the "surge" zone of lakes where the "back and forward" wave action rolls them into balls.

Make your own, in a range of shapes:
I found something useful while I was doing my "day job", and it gives a mechanism for making some more. Basically you suspend the algae in Agar (you can get Agar in health food stores), you could take a small amount of a "moss ball" and that should give you the potential to grow many more balls, as all the algal strands will potentially grow out.

I was also thinking that you can make a shaped scaffold (with fine stainless steel mesh?) and dip this in the Agar/algae mix, when it cools it will set in the shape. I was thinking of a nice bumpy "lawn" but it could be any shape, and the algae will grow out to form algal "topiary" of a dragon, the Taj Mahal, sunken galleon etc.

<http://www.saps.org.uk/secondary/teaching-resources/235>

<http://www.saps.org.uk/attachments/article/235/SAPS%20Sheet%2023%20-%20Algal%20balls.pdf>

cheers Darrel

 

[jessonthenet]

Hi,

wondered if anyone knows anything about Mossballs, have about a dozen of these in my main tank, they seemed to have been growing fine until recently when I noticed two of them have broken down from the ball shape.

They are almost open, that is to say, almost like a slug shape, wondered whether they do this normally.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Mike

Depends where you got them from as you may of bought ones that someone has already separated not the natural ones then they will eventually collapse.


I had these and tried separating them and it did work but takes ages to grow and hard to keep a nice shape. I would rather buy more and let them grow. Don't buy them off Ebay, not saying that is where you got them from.

 

[Sambo]

I wrapped black cotton round the "babies" to make them ball shape and kept rotating them, I have propogated many since from same original moss ball which gets turned once a week.. five years on I have about ten.. mind you I have given some away.
I must add this, At MH aquatics in trowel nott'm the discus tanks were full of unsightly moss ball pieces staff had ripped up which ruined the display of discus... A member of staff from the plant specialist MH aquatics in east bridgeford was there telling the staff of trowel's store just this and how it would affect customer impression - nice; didn't even have to say a word...So I reckon they will get better soon and goes to show that it takes a little effort to keep moss balls-cladophora aegagropila looking good, as they often don't.
Also a pic of the algae ball growing on the rock would be excellent, I have tried this in the past but it wouldn't stay attatched.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Marimo ball carpet (not mine). The owner eventually got fed up with it floating away, so I don't think it will attach properly. Best hope would be to grow it through a fine mesh.

cheers Darrel