Sickly Java Moss & Moss Ball

[pbartholme]

Welcome to the forum.
I have no advice on the moss balls or java, but must point out a couple of things:

1. Goldfish do not belong in a 10G tank, for any amount of time, they are messy eaters and messy poopers, with huge bioloads.
2. That CAE will get huge, aggressive, and are known for attaching to, and sucking off the slime coats of other, slow moving fish.

Sorry for being the bearer of bad news, but these are common newbie mistakes, we all have made them at one time or another.

RESEARCH is key when setting up new tanks, and choosing fish to keep.

I also don't recommend the CAE or SAE honestly. I had a CAE in the past and he started to get really aggressive towards my mollies to the point of fin nipping one of my females. Also the pet stores are very misleading about the size of the catfish. I would only really recommend a CAE to go with other more aggressive fish like cichlids.

 

[pbartholme]

Hi all! It's my first time posting here, so excuse any abnormal/'newbie'-ness on my part. (Also a bit new to the fishkeeping hobby.)

I'm really looking for help & insight on my Java Moss & Marimo Moss Ball. I have a few different tanks setup, but for this topic, I have:

1. 25gal tropical aquarium (housing (3) mollies, (1) female crown tail betta, (3) pearl danios, (2) mystery snails, and (1) Chinese algae eater)
2. 10gal goldfish tank (housing (5) various small goldfish)

I received a chunk of java moss from a pet store that they offered to me, and moss balls that came from Petsmart. I split the java moss and the moss balls evenly into each tank (half java moss + 1 moss ball per tank).

The goldfish tank is doing great & flourishing - everything going well these past few months.

Tropical tank, not so much. I had a big dip of ph level & ammonia spiking - long story short, half of my fishies died and the other half got sick. After a lot of cleaning, water changes, water tests, medicine,. etc. - I realized it was still not getting better. The water's ammonia was always high & smelled like urine. Crazy!

I started to realize that the java moss & moss ball looked sickly - not brown, but not green. Perhaps yellowing, but nothing excessive? Almost like a pale green color. I took them both out & I believe the urine smell was coming from these plants.

After taking them out, the tropical tank has stabilized and everyone is doing fine. Except for the java moss & moss ball, which are sitting in a plastic cup (like the ones you receive a betta fish in at Petsmart). I tried giving them some aquarium water, and tending to it a little, but after some time still, it smells like urine.

My questions are:

• Is the java moss & moss ball too sick to recover?
• Is it a good idea to place it back into the tropical aquarium, to help it recover? (It's probably not going to recover just sitting in a cup.)
• Would it do better recovering in the goldfish tank, with the healthy java moss & moss ball?
• I also have a small filtered betta fish tank (3gal) - would that be a better spot to help it recover?
• Is there anything additional I should buy/get to help it recover? I've read about things like fertilizer, etc. I even had the thought of getting a ghost shrimp to maybe help eat any algae that might be stunting its health/growth?

I usually do well by just researching issues on my own, but nobody seems to have encountered this in the same way I have. If anyone has any insight or advice at all, I would love to hear it!

Thanks so much in advance!

Hi there,
So I am not exactly sure why you are getting that urine smell that is very strange. I will say your moss ball does look quite sickly. Something I do with my moss balls is take them out and rinse them in cool water, then let them soak in the cool water for 12-24 hours. Marimo moss balls actually prefer cooler water, so treating them like (especially if they are in a heated tank) this can really help them to perk up. It is possible yours can still be saved but honestly if these plants are messing with your parameters I would get some new ones. Also prior to putting these back in your tank make sure they are washed thoroughly.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Sorry for just now getting back to you....

Any chance of a picture of the light? We may be able to give you specifics. From the sounds of it, you may need to upgrade if you wish to have good plants.