Mini moss balls appear after six years!

[Aquarimax]

In 2019, I set up another aquarium for my Opae ula. I added a mini moss ball from Petshrimp.com. Unfortunately, that moss ball disappeared over time, or so I thought. A few days ago, I found a couple of tiny moss balls, apparently doing well!

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[Major_Wd]

Super cool! I really wonder how it somehow managed to persist for 6 years after it apparently died without you noticing it

[Mustafa]

That's great! The mossball probably disappeared behind some rock or decoration...possibly shrank and/or split into pieces...and voila...you have new mossballs years later. From the size of them I'd guess they are at least a year or two old already. This is truly an amazing plant!

[JoeG]

My mini moss ball purchased from Petshrimp and put in the tank on January 1, 2020 still looks exactly the same as it did the day it was placed in the tank. However, I am noticing some new ones starting to pop up around the tank. Apparently the shrimp help it to sluff off some small strands and you really don’t notice them until they grow a little. Patience is the key.

[Corucia]

It’s weird as I’ve picked up numerous mossballs from here and introduced them in several of my tanks but none of them have ultimately survived let alone multiplied (they’ve all shrunken over time and likely consumed by the shrimp as they’ve wilted). Conversely, the microalgae has thrived and there are some other odd species of algae that have taken hold in a few of my tanks. I’ve even gotten Batophora oerstedii to thrive in one tank and start to germinate successfully in another. Super strange given the experience of others.

[Mozzie]

It’s weird as I’ve picked up numerous mossballs from here and introduced them in several of my tanks but none of them have ultimately survived let alone multiplied (they’ve all shrunken over time and likely consumed by the shrimp as they’ve wilted). Conversely, the microalgae has thrived and there are some other odd species of algae that have taken hold in a few of my tanks. I’ve even gotten Batophora oerstedii to thrive in one tank and start to germinate successfully in another. Super strange given the experience of others.

I've heard they need very strong light to do well. Being that most people don't want excess algae growing on the glass, they leave the light on for shorter periods or dim it. I last week raised it from the tank floor to atop a rock in the hope that it would do better closer to the light source.