# Question about moss ball



## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

Hi all, I hope that I can get an answer to this question.

I am thinking of getting a moss ball for my girl Infra Red's tank, it is a 2.5 gallon, heated but not filtered. It gets room light, I have an LED light but I rarely use it. PetSmart has moss balls in cups for $7.99, are these genuine moss balls? Are they okay? I also see moss balls on Amazon, a company called SubstrateSource has mini "Cladophora aegargropila 'Marimo Ball' Live Algae Ball" for $5.00 plus $7.68 shipping, they have good reviews, would that be better?

Can I get other plants for my unfiltered, low light tank? I have river rocks for substrate.


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## Freedom (May 17, 2009)

Moss balls are algae, not plants. I bought some at PetsMart, some at PetCo. Don't really see a difference. They look nice, and the collect food debris and ammonia. 

My cory cats are always busy collecting the food and my baby mystery snails do the same.

When you do a water change, you take the ball out, put in the bucket of dirty water and gently squeeze it to remove the ammonia it has collected.

They prefer cool water, and low light.

Algae eaters like plecos and gold fish will eat it and may destroy it.


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## EvaJupiterSkies (Oct 25, 2013)

The Marimo moss balls at Petsmart are genuine (at least, there definitely isn't filler material, and it definitely isn't java moss or the like so, it should be genuine), and as a fellow 2.5 gallon, heated but not filtered, room light only person, they should be fine. +1 to Freedom2b about the water change advice with them. I squeeze mine out every other water change, about once a week. 

Other plants to try would be java moss or java fern. I've found java moss is genuinely unkillable (I have a brown thumb at best, and have had no problems in almost a year). It can float or you can wrap it around a piece of driftwood or other decoration. No planting required.  The java fern for me is new, but it's been in tank for just over a week and all is well so far, so... we'll see.


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

Thanks to both of you for the replies! 

The PetSmart moss balls are pretty big, I thought I read that you can split one in half and roll the halves into two balls, is that correct? I'd rather have two smaller moss balls than one larger one...


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

PetSmart moss balls may or may not be the real deal depending on your particular store. Squishy moss balls are not genuine.

Moss balls reproduce by splitting when they get really big, but you should never try to split one yourself.

If you want real moss balls, you can get them here: http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral...ra-aegagrophila-Choose-from-3-sizes_p_38.html
That's what real ones look like.

The lady who runs that online shop has a reputation for including extras sometimes when you order from her, and if you ask around the forum, you may even run into someone with a code that'll let you get a 10% discount


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## Freedom (May 17, 2009)

EvaJupiterSkies said:


> . I squeeze mine out every other water change, about once a week.


Good point. Sometimes I forget I am on BettaFish.com, where many folks have smaller tanks, primarily for bettas. I have 37 gallon and 50 gallon tanks, so I'm not changing water that often. Thanks for clarifying!


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## BettaBeau (May 14, 2014)

That's great, thanks for the info. If anyone with a coupon code for Planted Aquarium Central lets me know to IM them, it would be greatly appreciated. Yay!


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## EvaJupiterSkies (Oct 25, 2013)

myexplodingcat said:


> PetSmart moss balls may or may not be the real deal depending on your particular store. Squishy moss balls are not genuine.


+1. The Petsmart near me does appear to have real ones. Mine aren't squishy. I was very surprised at the firm constitution. At the same time, I double checked online to see what was more likely to mean they weren't real, and was reading that some people try to pass off java moss and other mosses wrapped around styrofoam as real Marimo. Mine definitely do not have styrofoam or any other core, and I've had java moss in my tanks for almost year and it's not that, so I'm relatively confident in saying it's algae through and through.  They are quite delightful.

Have fun with yours!


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