# Marimo?



## kcoscia (Jul 24, 2013)

I've never tried, but I have read that someone once tried to break it apart and all the little pieces balled up on their own


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## Neatfish (Jun 22, 2012)

Guess I'll find out


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## wicca27 (May 3, 2009)

i tried to get it to take but just didnt stick to slate. im sure it can be done. just keep in mind marimo is an algae and in a case like mine i liked my water and took off and made a nasty mess being that its clado algae. most dont seem to have the same problem i did but just a heads up. i did try to get it to attach to mopani wood too. it stuck but if i pulled it out of the water to swish and clean it the marimo would fall off the wood and i would have to tie it with thread again to keep in on.


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

Mileage may vary, but for what it's worth, here's what it did in my tank: 

Bought one from the LFS, broke it apart after a week or so to put a portion in each of several tanks. My hope was that it'd form multiple balls, but what it mostly did was colonize everywhere I didn't want it--the mini bolbitis, the anubia nana petite roots, the mopani and the xmas moss. What with moving shrimps and plants around between tanks, I didn't realize how obnoxious it would be in taking over the xmas moss until it'd already contaminated my main tank. I suspect it's going to take bleaching the wood to get rid of it--and I'm not ready to do that in either tank yet as I don't have a clean portion of xmas moss to recolonize the wood--nor am I certain some floating bit of it somewhere in the tank wouldn't just glom onto the new stuff while I wasn't looking. 

It does grow into the substrate--fluorite in this case--but it mostly grows between the grains just below the surface. Only after it's formed a thick, unseen matt, does it finally start to show a tiny bit above the surface.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Try googling "marimo carpet aquarium" or something simular there are some cool photos. I recall someone had a journal with marimo carpeting but they used 12-20 good sized marimo balls for it.


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## Neatfish (Jun 22, 2012)

Thanks. I just took it apart and spread it across the floramax. Wonder if it'll spread out guess will have to wait and see.


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## BulletToothBoris (Jan 17, 2013)

Just remember marrimo is very slow growing so don't expect it to take off.


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## Neatfish (Jun 22, 2012)

Don't know how slow it grows but i swear that piece i broke off is going to be golf ball size already. That's just one piece that started to ball up.


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## Moni (Feb 1, 2014)

I think I have marimo growing in my 20 gallon tank. It's been growing for about 3 years and I love it. It is barely attached to the drift wood and other decoration that it is growing on. It has developed a roundish look. If I pick a piece off it looks like the marimo balls I've seen just not completely a ball. If I roll it a little bit it does make a ball. I think it hitched in somehow with other plants as I never planted it. I did have a marimo ball in one of my tanks about 7 or 8 years ago. This is my first post. I hope these 2 pics come out ok.














What do any of you think? I own a good microscope and have thought of looking at it magnified to see if it really is marimo if it can be identified that way.


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## The Trigger (May 9, 2012)

Aren't marimo balls just balls of cladophora algae?


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## Moni (Feb 1, 2014)

I don't know. I just looked up cladophora algae and saw some pictures on google. I guess there are a variety of kids. From what I saw it looks stringier than what I have. I do have an algae in another tank that I thought was the same as this "marimo" kind growing in my 20 gallon. It turned out to be longer, softer and more invasive because it is harder to remove. It also sends out some long strings from time to time and grows on my anubias leaves. The "marimo" kind does not grow on any leaves and is very easy to remove in clumps. It looks to me like its made from green felt. It's funny. I have 10 tanks and early every one seems to grow a different kind of algae. A couple of the tanks have no algae.


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