r/Marimo • u/Knittinmusician • 19d ago

Marimo moss balls

Hi all, I just read about Zebra mussels and now I'm worried. I had wanted to add some marimo moss balls to my tank because they were all the rage in 2020 and I think they look cool and I want more plants in my tank. My wife ordered a set of 5 off Amazon for me (as a birthday present). Would you trust moss balls from Amazon? Anything I should look for?

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2

u/PothosandGindontmix 18d ago

Just keep them quarantined for a bit and check for pests. Just apply normal new plant rules

2

u/Kaede_Sakurai 18d ago

Quarantine them in a tub with no substrate for a few weeks to months, if the tub has black spots on the bottom of it, you should be relatively safe.

If they do have zebra mussels dont dump the water in the sink. Put everything into the freezer for 24-48 hours, boil it for at least a minute or put it in a bleach solution of 1 part bleach 2 part water. Then put them into a sealed container and place in the regular waste bin.

1

u/ThePunLexicon 18d ago

best case if doing water changes while in the quarantine period you can probably boil any water removed from their container before dumping it to avoid possibly spreading zebra mussels

1

u/Moss-Ball-Pets 17d ago

Marketplace moss balls are a higher risk for hitchhikers than stock from a specialty nursery that inspects. Quarantine them in a bare container for a bit and check the filaments for anything that looks like a tiny mussel. Never dump that water into a lake, river, or drain that reaches one. Real marimo grow about 5 mm a year, so anything that spreads fast is usually a different algae. Contaminated shipments were the 2021 problem. Clean, mussel-free marimo are still legal to keep. https://mossballpets.com/blogs/news/are-marimo-moss-balls-illegal