# Marimo Moss Ball Quarantine/Parasites?



## Bettaz (Oct 6, 2014)

Hello!
I was wondering how long do I need to quarantine a marimo moss ball before introducing it to a tank? I've been quarantining my marimo moss ball I got for a few days now. I squeezed out excess water and am hoping the chlorine in the tap water will help sanitize it a little. How should I introduce it to my tank when it will probably still have the tap water chemicals in it? Should I soak it in some tank water first?

It also has these little worms in it? I got it from a fish shop that sells them, it was not in their tanks. It looks to me like some kind of tube parasite? It's body was tubular and kind of broken into sections of tubes like a bug leg kind of? Maybe similar to a mosquitoes I would imagine... I found one or two stuck in the algae on the outside of the moss ball when I washed it. It may have been fish food on the moss ball, I'm not sure it didn't look like a blood worm though. I haven't seen any crawling or poking out of the moss just those two. They didn't seem to be alive, but I can't tell. How do you get rid of parasites in moss balls without killing the plant? I have some garlic guard and was thinking of maybe spiking the water with some of that, I don't know if the garlic would kill the parasites inside the moss ball though. I don't really want to take it apart and risk killing the moss ball either... any ideas on how I could do this? :-?


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## VivianKJean (Aug 20, 2013)

You should have never washed in just plain tap water. That is incredibly dangerous. My advice now is to set up a bucket or large tupperware container with conditioned water or old tank water and soak it for a few weeks. Anything that is going to go into an aquarium should only be washed in conditioned or old tank water, never tap water. I personally would not even add it to your tank but I'm very conservative when it comes to my betta's care. If any of that chlorine is trapped somewhere in the moss ball that could 1) actually kill the moss ball and 2) harm your fish. 

In general, if the moss ball wasn't in a tank then you could add it right to the tank. 

The white worms seem to be fairly normal. I've heard of others having moss balls with them.


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## Bettaz (Oct 6, 2014)

Thank you! I read that they could be placed in tap water, but I thought today it may not be so safe for tanks. I was thinking that killing the parasites as well as sanitizing it would be the lesser of two evils if it prevented Picasso from getting sick. I just changed it to tap water last night because I thought it may kill the parasites. So thankfully it hasn't been in tap water too long. I ran the tap water for two minutes on cold before washing the marimo and putting water in its container. As long as the little worms aren't dangerous then I shouldn't need to get rid of them with the tap water. 

I'm going to change out some of my tank water tonight so I will wash the marimo out with that and also place the water in the Marimo Container. I was going to quarantine it for at least two weeks so I think I will follow that course and let it soak in tank water. I don't want to take any risks with that.


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

Just a slight tangent on Marimo: its not actually a moss, but a specialized form of slow growing hair algae. Because its an algae you should not use anything that kills algae including chlorinated water (some tap have much higher chlorine content than others), bleach or hydrogen peroxicde dips, Seachem Excel, or any form of algae-cide, these all can kill the marimo. If you get algae in your tank, remove the marimo before doing any chemical based treatments, however I'd recommend instead manually removing the algae and fixing the cause that's making algae grow. If you use a chemical based treatment on the tank make sure do so a few heavy water changes after treatment(s) are done before putting the marimo back.
I have read that you can rinse it in tap and I have, but I put it in dechlorinated water immediately after.
I cannot offer any advice on the tube like parasites you described. Is it possible to get a photo of it?


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## Bettaz (Oct 6, 2014)

I put the Marimo into some of Picasso's tank water last night. I didn't want to risk the chlorine killing the Marimo as you have said. :-(

Thank you for the tips on algae! I used ammonia to help cycle so hopefully I won't get any of that. I had a bottle left over from when I had my cichlid. I don't like to use disinfectants because they do more harm than good usually, I just go with hot water for most things. So the Marimo will be safe with my tank decorations and tank cleaning.

I combed the Marimo for more last night. I only found one more sample after that, and a tiny twig, I took it to the fish shop I got it from because I was worried about it. The fish shop identified it as some of their fish food stuck on it so it thankfully was not parasites. I threw it away afterwards, it was a weird looking little thing. I really didn't want to deal with parasites again. I just helped my brother get rid of food mites in his hermit crab tank that were introduced with some of the mealworms and overtook every inch of his tank. I didn't realize how many corners those mites could hide in. ._.


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