Aquatic plants are common additions to a fish container and can be found amongst a majority of set-ups. Famous aquarium foliage known as Marimo balls is growing in popularity with aquarists due to their compact nature and easy installation. Not only do they add a soothing green sphere to your fish tank, but they possess several positive characteristics that could benefit the entire aquatic environment.
What are Marimo Balls?
Anyone that experiences difficulties when caring for their live aquarium plants, along with their collection of marine creatures and fish pets, can appreciate the convenience of placing marimo balls. These small deep-green colored velvet balls can easily add a wildlife touch to your aquatic tanks without requiring tremendous amounts of energy and resources. Marimo balls are neither moss nor plant.
Marimo balls are a compact spherical assembly of algae known as Aegagropila linnaei, mostly found in deep lakes. You can click here to discover more aquarium accouterments that can contribute to your fish tank enclosures’ various purposes. The popular spherical filamentous aggregations of marimo balls are molded during the growth and development phases of algae.
Benefits of Installing Aquarium Marimo Balls
Marimo balls are mostly found in Northern European lakes and Japanese rivers. Its name is derived from the native Japanese words of “mari,” which means bouncy, and “mo,” that translates to aquatic plants. The spherical shape, cute, and velvety characteristics of marimo balls are molded when the algae compositions bounce around the lake and river beds propelled by natural water currents.
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Natural Filtration
Marimo balls not only contribute soothing greenery of foliage to your aquarium, but they have some other functions to offer. They are capable of absorbing harmful pollutants that may affect the aquatic environment of aquariums. Marimo balls can deal with contaminants such as nitrates, phosphates, and ammonia while subtly filtering out solid water debris.
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Oxygen Creation
One of the important elements required by living things on our planet is the compound known as oxygen. Functioning like any other plant species, marimo balls absorb carbon dioxide emissions underwater while creating oxygen through the natural process called photosynthesis. Marimo ball oxygen production may be in minimal amounts; still, they maintain a healthy and balanced nutrient-enriched environment for your marine pets.
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Prevents other Algae
Marimo balls are spherical formations created by the algae known as Aegagropila linnaei. Being an algae composition, they intake all the nutrients required by other algae growths. Installing marimo balls after thoroughly cleansing your fish tank is a recommended task if you want to have a safe marine enclosure from algae growths.
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Excellent for Marine Creatures
Typically found in lakes and river beds, marimo balls serve an ecosystemic purpose of providing shelter for diverse aquatic species. As they roll around with the water currents filtering out solid debris, they can offer shelter often preferred by pet snails and shrimps. The free-floating and bouncy characteristics of marimo balls are great for the gourami fish species since they enjoy playing and pushing them around like toys.
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Salt Tolerance
Salt water levels are crucial for the health of most aquatic organisms and life forms. A huge amount of saltwater plants cannot survive without the proper composition of salt levels within the water they live in and requires minimal salt water concentrations. However, marimo balls are known to withstand high salt levels due to their natural wildlife habitats.
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Adds Helpful Organisms
Functioning like sand in an artificial marine environment, marimo balls can be a thriving source of helpful bacteria. Microorganisms and good bacteria accumulations are great for maintaining phosphate and nitrogen levels crucial for most aquatic creatures. Marimo moss are also parasite free unlike other marine species that can contaminate your fish tank with unwanted parasites.
Conclusion
Marimo balls are green, velvety, plant-like spherical formations created by the filamentous Aegagropila linnaei algae. These bouncy moss-like balls are native to Northern Europe and Japanese riverbeds. They are great additions to aquariums since they help with oxygen creation, natural filtration and serve as marine shelters.
