# The Truth About Morimo Balls



## cich (Aug 5, 2003)

Those (actual) balls are so cool. Never heard of them before!

--cich


----------



## tombsc (Nov 24, 2003)

I believe the 'actual' marimo balls are very expensive and hard to come by as they have been declared a national treasure and anyone who owned a marimo ball was urged to return it to the lake as they were at one time highly threatned by industrial pollution and over'fishing', apparently hundreds were returned due to this request.
The balls take something like 50 years to get to a few cms diameter, so yes, the ones you buy from the fish store are indeed fakes :flick:


----------



## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Ugly Genius said:


> I wonder if the woman would hire me part-time. I'll rub algae between my fingers for, oh, say, $75,000 a year.


I guess the salaries would drop if there were too many people sitting around the lake and rubbing algae between their fingers. You'd probably have to get certified first, after some years of study to master the right thumb pressure, circulation and speed. First attempts only produce green water! :lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

LOL, Wasser.

And you're right. I mean, we'd have to have _some_ standard of algae rolling excellence—the Nippon’s International Committee Ensuring Ball Algae’s Lasting Legacy Standards, if you will (NICEBALLS, for short)—to ensure that the balls rolled would be of the highest quality and always round and not, say, square.

Afterall, who wants a square ball?


----------



## Gomer (Aug 14, 2003)

> Afterall, who wants a square ball?


Sponge Bob


----------



## Daemonfly (Oct 1, 2003)

My new one is kidney shaped  (seems almost perfect for splitting into two )


----------



## malkore (Nov 3, 2003)

Daemonfly said:


> My new one is kidney shaped  (seems almost perfect for splitting into two )


ditto on mine too.


----------



## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

The old woman is probably training someone then :wink:


----------



## Robert H (Apr 3, 2003)

Well its spelled marimo, not morimo. In Japan they are considered a national treasure and protected, but Japan is not the only place in the world where you find them. They are also native to lakes in Iceland and northern Europe. It is a true plant, not a man made "rolled up" peice of algae. Oriental aquarium in Singapore grows thousands of them, and is exporting them all over the world.


----------



## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Oops, sorry about the misspelling, everyone. (I should have caught that.)

And as Robert pointed out, your balls may be real depending on where your balls come from.


----------



## Daemonfly (Oct 1, 2003)

I have one in my 6g that I'm going to split prett soon, its kidney shaped, so should split into two round balls quite nicely.


----------

