Looking for a marimo moss ball

[K. Wilson]

I have been looking at all my LFS and no one seems to have any live Mario moss balls. I have never had them before but would love to add one to one of my tanks and try it out. Anyone know a reliable website or somewhere I can find any? 

[lefty o]

im not sure if they have come back into circulation yet. a year or so ago they started showing up with zebra mussels, so pretty much everybody quit carrying them.

[K. Wilson]

Aww dang that’s a shame . Thanks!

[PaigeIs]

On 4/30/2022 at 8:10 PM, lefty o said:

im not sure if they have come back into circulation yet. a year or so ago they started showing up with zebra mussels, so pretty much everybody quit carrying them.

I've seen a lot of messages like this on several sites that sell aquatic plants  ""We were just made aware that there were zebra mussels found on moss balls in various retail stores in several states. We are going to err on the side of caution and suspend moss balls sales until the situation can be assessed further. We are actively working with local and national scientists to find a solution and will keep you updated as we find out more."  

[K. Wilson]

Oh well, hopefully I will get to get one in a tank one day if they can fix that up. 🙂 thanks for all the info everyone!

[Katherine]

You might try a local fishkeeping group and see if anyone has one they don't mind passing on from before the zebra mussel issue started.

[AndreaW]

Found these on Amazon if you want to try. I bought some many years ago to add to my mature tank and unfortunately they came with BBA which I've had since then. Luckily, it's never gotten out of control, but I know some people dread it, so I just thought to warn you. Sometimes they can bring something in with them (just like most plants) so you may want to quarantine them (I don't know if quarantining mine would have changed anything, since BBA usually doesn't grow in new tanks, and my quarantine tank would have been a new setup).

I know you can sometimes find moss that has been tied into a ball shape, but that's not quite the same.

[sairving]

Marimo balls contaminated with zebra muscles all came from Ukraine. Marimo sold in stores are farm grown. I don't know how many farms are in Europe but or if zebra muscles are widespread at a lot of the farms. Living in the great lakes region, zebra muscles are a huge problem. 

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by sairving

[Minanora]

I'm falling in love with these moss balls... I have seen photos of them and I had no idea that a ball of moss could be so pretty.

@AndreaW is that the same seller as when you purchased from that listing? I can't remember if you can look at the vendor information for orders that old.

[AndreaW]

On 5/4/2022 at 8:23 PM, Minanora said:

is that the same seller as when you purchased from that listing?

I looked back through my order history and can't find it so I'm not sure. It was many years ago though. I think they did come all the way from China. They were small and two kind of disintegrated, but I still have one left that rolls around my 46G tank and it's pretty cute. It's probably less than dime size.

[Woogie23]

I have moss balls, not sure where they were shipped from order history says I bought them May 2020. But it doesn't give me any other details. I enjoy them for sure. I've even got them to spread out a little and they are growing on my fake tree stump!