# Marimo Moss balls and shrimps



## Optix (May 31, 2011)

biofilm on the ball


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

Amanos will eat the ball as well, but it grows as fast as they eat it unless you've got a huge swarm of them or something.


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## wetworks (Jul 22, 2011)

jasonpatterson said:


> Amanos will eat the ball as well, but it grows as fast as they eat it unless you've got a huge swarm of them or something.


Right now I have ten Amano Shrimps and 9 adult Cherry Shrimps. There are about 30-40 (they are hard to count!) baby Cherry Shrimps in there as well. They generally don't swarm it, but it seems like all of them visit the moss ball at one time or another during the day.


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## tbarabash (May 18, 2011)

Watch out, the cladophora strands can break off and land on other parts of your tank and start to spread like a disease. I had mine beside a piece of DW in my tank and it started growing on that.. .fine, that's sweet since my tank has a kind of grotto theme and it looked nice but then it jumped to my lava rock and I didn't pick it off immediately. Went on my honeymoon and my lava rock that was about 6"x3" was completely covered in the stuff


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## wetworks (Jul 22, 2011)

tbarabash said:


> Watch out, the cladophora strands can break off and land on other parts of your tank and start to spread like a disease. I had mine beside a piece of DW in my tank and it started growing on that.. .fine, that's sweet since my tank has a kind of grotto theme and it looked nice but then it jumped to my lava rock and I didn't pick it off immediately. Went on my honeymoon and my lava rock that was about 6"x3" was completely covered in the stuff


I did not know that it grew quickly enough to spread like that. Since I have shrimps and nerites in my tank, I hope that they can keep it under control.


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## zdnet (Aug 13, 2010)

wetworks said:


> I read somewhere that these are really a type of algae, and my shrimps really like to graze on it. Are they eating the ball itself, or are they eating the things that live on the ball?


Right below the surface of a marimo ball are decayed organic matters. When shrimps graze on the ball, they use their legs to burrow below the surface to dig up those decayed matters and feed on them. In the process, they help keep the marimo ball surface clean, i.e. free of debris.

When I add a marimo ball to a tank, I like to make sure that there are shrimps in that tank. They take care of the ball's maintenance and help the ball grow better.


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## GeToChKn (Apr 15, 2011)

zdnet said:


> Right below the surface of a marimo ball are decayed organic matters. When shrimps graze on the ball, they use their legs to burrow below the surface to dig up those decayed matters and feed on them. In the process, they help keep the marimo ball surface clean, i.e. free of debris.
> 
> When I add a marimo ball to a tank, I like to make sure that there are shrimps in that tank. They take care of the ball's maintenance and help the ball grow better.


Probably explains why mine went nuts today. I tore mine up into smaller pieces today to make more balls and there were going crazy on the insides.


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## wetworks (Jul 22, 2011)

zdnet said:


> Right below the surface of a marimo ball are decayed organic matters. When shrimps graze on the ball, they use their legs to burrow below the surface to dig up those decayed matters and feed on them. In the process, they help keep the marimo ball surface clean, i.e. free of debris.
> 
> When I add a marimo ball to a tank, I like to make sure that there are shrimps in that tank. They take care of the ball's maintenance and help the ball grow better.


This really makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation!


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